Brain Damage
by antisaints
Summary: Naruto thrives on the notion of love at first sight. Or, at very least, he just really wants to bone Sasuke mindless. Maybe all of the pot, free love, and fighting the power has finally gone to his head. NaruSasu. AU.
1. Brain Damage

_**Brain Damage**_

"I'm not gonna lie, pops, this is kinda fuckin' weird. _No lies_."

Minato grinned a little at him, nodding his head and glancing at the school. "I know, kid. You'll get used to it. Y'know the language pretty well, but the place's designed for foreign students, so most people can understand English if you can't get the Japanese. You'll be okay."

"Says the guy who got to chill in the US for his Education."

"I sold myself to the wage, kid, what can I say?"

Naruto snorted, shrugging the uniform into a bit looser hold on his shoulders. It was _weird_- just about all of this place was, but his mom was inclined towards returning, and Minato got a job offer. (The two _were_ surviving hippies, which would be pretty damn interesting to watch with Japan's tightass court system all over the place, but it would do.) "Yeah, yeah. Go change the world a little, I'll go get smart."

Minato smiled, appreciatively. "I'll pick you up after class."

Naruto stepped out of the car, ruffling his hair a little and waving goodbye to his father. _God _this was weird. Even though Kushina and Minato were aging, maturing hippies, Naruto really wasn't. These were the best years of his life, every day was the summer of love for him, and the 1960s never stopped. He'd spent the first year of High School – which was, _apparently_, the last year of Middle School in Japan – smoking pot, making music, fighting the power, painting awkward beauties, making love to heartbreakers, and, just to spice it up, letting the power win on occasion. (Of course, winning the battle wasn't winning the _war_.) And for the past ten years had he gone to school in tye-dye shirts and orange pants and _fuck_ if he knew what to do with a _uniform_. Godfuck if he knew what to do with a lot of Japanese shit, he'd been bug-eyed to find out the kids had to go to school on _Saturday_ and their summer lasted a month or something. Despite the fact that America's government was kind of fucked up the ass, he missed it the second all of his Immigration papers got signed and he started moving his stuff into his new house.

_Fuck_ if that had been depressing.

School apparently didn't start for another hour, but Naruto was so messed up on Jet Lag still that he felt energetic enough to go early, check it out. Minato had gotten him a list of shit to do on his first day, which included meeting the King, getting a schedule, not raising hell, trying to pay attention, and take a test to see what level classes he needed to take. "That seems out of order... whatever, time to go make a beauty in this place." He grinned, popping his knuckles and heading for the front door. Pushed it forward, and if he were the type to ever really feel stupid over _anything_ he might have facepalmed himself for not reading the sign on the handle that clearly said to "Pull". (In Japanese, sure, but Naruto was pretty damn good at reading and speaking it. His handwriting was fucked up, though, but that had more to do with trying to write something with nine thousand or more goddamn lines in a tiny little space. What was _that_.)

He pulled it open, snorting at himself, and blinked in surprise. He used to live in California, but the common-mall he'd walked in to was more diverse than _anywhere_ he'd seen back in the states. When Minato said foreign students, Naruto thought 'Oh, white kids.', but there were a _lot_ of different types of people, all babbling in Japanese and all carrying weird, thick accents. He watched a pretty black girl walk past him, carrying a couple of books in her hand and talking to a white girl and a Saudi kid. "Wow, shit. This is _awesome_."

There were a few Asians too, probably from Korea or China or something, and he watched the mess of culture fly by him as he ruffled his hair again. It was bleach-blonde from all the California sun, cut choppily and almost hitting his shoulders since he'd been forced to cut it before he came to Japan. The school Minato had originally planned on putting him in had a length rule (-which, of course, Naruto laughed at the second Minato said it, something along the lines of "-AHAHAHA, A _LENGTH RULE. _Oh, oh _god_. Oh god that's rich. Silly, silly Asians and their inferiority complexes." To which Minato laughed too, because _damn_ had he raised a kid a lot like him at that age.) – however, at the last second, he found a different school, and judging by the fact that a really pretty-ass blonde kid with a _huge_ ponytail of hair wearing a boy's uniform just stalked past him too, there probably wasn't a rule over hair.

(Which sucked _cock_, considering he'd lost a foot of his favorite hair. Not like he'd had any other type of hair, but it comes as it comes.)

"Yo, anyone!"

He flagged down a girl with dyed hair. "Gimme some love and tell me where the Fist of this place is?"

She blinked at him. "Say what, white-boy?"

"The head of the place. I need'a list of educationals."

She snorted a bit. "Yeah, sure, _whatever_. Go to that office place over there, the one nobody's hanging out at. You're lookin' for Tsunade. Blonde hair and huge tits, you'll know her when you see her."

"Aight, thanks baby, you saved my Holiday."

He watched her walk off, muttering something about "Freakin' treehuggers…", which only made him laugh as he fisted the pockets of his pants, which he'd specifically asked to be a size bigger because god_fuck_ everything was tight here. Japanese kids were tiny, but Naruto was tall and had a wiry, lanky frame, even at sixteen. That's what genes gave you, he guessed, when your mom's Irish and the dad's American. He weaved through kids, most of which were chattering idly- this was _not_ his image of a Japanese school, but this was an Alternative one. Most kids only stayed at this place for a year, _maybe_ two, before going to a regular Japanese school. "Which is kinda shitty," he muttered out loud, finding the door and twisting the knob to walk in.

There were two desks, between them a walkway which split off into a hall that he couldn't see down into very far, but he figured there were offices in there. The ones you got suspended in for smoking pot in Vocational, or something. He grinned.

"Can I help you?"

He jerked out of memory and stared at the receptionist. _Man_ she was cute. What was with this place? "Yeah, baby, you can- I need to see the principal. Get schedule and stuff, I just got here."

"Oh, really?"

She smiled, genuinely. "Well, great, it's always good to have new faces here- this school is pretty close knit. I'll go tell her you're here, go ahead and take a seat."

Naruto blinked and smiled, speaking a "Thanks, man," and choosing himself a seat. So much for Japanese hardasses, they were pretty nice here. "Aw fuck, jinxed it." He mumbled, out loud, but his grin was still in-place, the way it usually was, scratching a bit at one of his facial scars. The place seemed pretty loose, though. All the kids were there early, just chillin', which Naruto had the impression if they came to school early, it was to do extra studying shit. That's what The Man said the Japanese did, anyways, some sort of subliminal message to make the American kids unconsciously study harder or something. At his school, though, Naruto never really spent a lot of time studying because his calling in life didn't require on reading all of Hemingway's crap.

(Not that he knew what said calling _was_. Though it'd be just his kind of irony that he'd decide he'd want to be an English Literature major or some shit when he turned eighteen.)

"Tsunade-sama's ready to see you now! Third door to the right."

Naruto stood up and nodded, flashing her one last smile before heading off into the hall. The right. He held up his hands for a second (-it was one of those things that never really got _completely_ programmed into his head, and he always had to check which way was what. He laughed at himself for it.) Deciding that right was the side of his dominant head and counting doors until he hit the third, glancing at the closed door and not bothering to knock but just walk in.

"Yo, I'm the-"

_Oh wow._

Huge tits? That girl couldn't even remotely give them justice. The woman looked young, had blonde hair in low pigtails and a drunken flush on her cheeks, but god if Naruto only looked at that for a second because _holy fucking shit_. He gaped, for a few seconds, only jolted out of his stare when the woman smashed a shot glass down on her desk to pour herself more _whatever_, looking up at Naruto in a slightly-buzzed gaze and "-C'mon in, kid. Take a seat. I heard you're Minato's kid?"

Naruto nodded, mouth still hanging open a bit, but nonetheless pulling out one of the chairs and sitting down, throwing his legs into the one next to it. "Put your feet down, you're not here to get comfortable."

"You look like you are." He replied, with a slight grin.

And then she did something Naruto could have never guessed she would do in a million years.

She punched him.

_Hard_.

Threw him and the chairs he was in a good seven or eight feet, right into the wall.

The receptionist from outside laughed a little at the cry and thud of body to plaster she could hear from where she sat. She was wondering when that was going to happen.

xxx

"Alright kid, here's your schedule."

Forty-five minutes of consistent arguing, many punches being thrown to Naruto, and a grand total of _ten minutes_ explaining how classes worked, she'd finally run off the list. "School on Saturday's optional here, you just come to the classes you need to work in if you come at all. Most of your classes will be in the same room, since the teachers come to you, but the group of students you're in class with are the ones you're stuck with all year. At the end of the day, you clean the school for fifteen minutes, then you can go to clubs or go home – it doesn't matter to me. Don't be a dick, blondie. The Prez' of your grade is in your class, so I'm making him tote you around all day."

Naruto laughed out right, even if both of his cheeks now sported deep bruises. The Man was stuck with him for the day, how ironic. This kid _had_ to be some tightass bastard.

"Oi, Shizune, send Uchiha in." – over some little button-speaker-box-fancy-_thing_ on the table.

"Yes, Tsunade-sama!"

She looked back at him. "Don't be a dick, blondie, I mean it. We'll kick your ass out if you raise too much hell."

"Yeah, yeah, the Cali-feds said that too."

The door opened, and Naruto didn't turn around, just listened to the footsteps cross the floor to his side. "This is Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke. Uchiha Sasuke, this is Uzumaki Naruto. Try not to rip the kid's arms off, it's taken me some self-control."

"Which I have significantly _more of_, Tsunade-sensei, as I am not intoxicated or particularly impulsive."

Naruto froze. _Fuck_.

"Don't be smart, just take him and get out of here. Class starts in like, ten minutes."

Sasuke snickered a little and Naruto stood up, turning to stare at him from five inches above him.

"Come on, Uzumaki, let's go."

Naruto felt himself harden, immediately. (_Fuckfuckfuck_.) Didn't move an inch, just stared at Sasuke, very intently at that. (_Fuckfuckfuck__**FUCK**_.) He felt a sweat bead at the back of his neck, staring at his features (-Not Japanese. He looked young, maybe Korean? Even young looking for a Korean. Long bangs, choppy hair in the back that would have classified as Emo-hair in America, and he looked _girly_. Not over the top Japanese-Rock girly, but like- if he didn't _know_ he was a guy-) He just stared. Gaped. (Godfucking_fuckfuckfuck_.) "I said come _on_, classes start in ten-"

Naruto grabbed the back of his neck, pulled him forward, kissed him without warning.

(Uchiha Sasuke was the most androgynously attractive thing he had _ever seen_.)

--

OKAY 8D So. I'm starting a fic. Hopefully.. my inspiration for Hippie!Naruto among all of these foreign kids will hold A But I mean, he is a hippie. So free love abounds I doubt Sasuke will be into that : NaruSasu ftw. Oh, and for the record, the title comes from the song by Pink Floyd. Stoner classics, yum

Review if you have a soul? D8


	2. Raving and Drooling

_**Brain Damage  
**Chapter Two_

Sasuke was _pissed_.

He trudged into his first period, slamming the door _hard_ behind him, Jiraiya looking at him from what he was scribbling on the board with an annoyed look. The significantly taller Naruto was grinning like a Cheshire cat, face abloom with _so many_ bruises and lip split open, bleeding just slightly and threatening to hit his chin. Tsunade, when she had managed to separate Sasuke from _beating Naruto's face in _cleaned him up a bit, she was apparently the school nurse too, but he still looked like someone had torn him to shreds, and the usually calm Uchiha looked more angry than anyone in his class had ever seen him before.

"You're late, Uchiha."

"Tsunade had to see me, she's making me haul the new student around."

_God_ Sasuke was pissed. It wasn't his _first kiss_, but he had enough people try that shit every day, but none of them were _that_ forward. (Save for Karin, perhaps, but he'd grown to tolerate her behavior.) Naruto _looked_ as smug as if Sasuke had reacted well, and his eyes narrowed with his grin, reaching out for Sasuke's arm as the other promptly tightened it and elbowed him in the stomach. Naruto only laughed, grinning, not taking an eye off of Sasuke for a second, while Sasuke looked like he was about to _shank him_.

The class stared.

Jiraiya blinked, raising a brow as Sasuke angrily tried to shrug him off and the lanky blond kid pursued him diligently, and cleared his throat. "-Kid, what's your name? This place seats alphabetically, so I need to know where to put you. We'll play the game where you talk about yourself until I lose interest. Uchiha, you can sit down."

Sasuke dipped out of Naruto's grasp without hesitation, cracking his knuckles as he stalked down in his seat near the back. The class's attention slowly moved from Sasuke's uncharacteristically angry attitude to Naruto, who just grinned at him, the same smug sort of look that made anyone involved want to punch him. He leaned back a little, relaxing, and hooked his thumbs into his pockets, surveying the students (-weird lot, no lie.) just as they did him before he spoke. "The name's Uzumaki Naruto. I like Ramen, pot-" A lot of eyebrows raised at this, since Naruto didn't know the Japanese word, he replaced it with English, which linguistically confused everyone who couldn't directly tell what he was talking about "-Salvador Dali, Indiana Jones, classic rock, being made of awesome, the Grateful Dead, saving the world, tye-dye-"

He paused.

Stared at Sasuke, grinned again, and pointed in his direction.

"And that guy."

The class looked stunned.

"I like that guy."

Sasuke looked about ready to shove a knife through Naruto's throat.

And Jiraiya?

He laughed out loud.

Picking up his roll book, he added in a name somewhere with an amused grin, body shaking with chuckles as he scratched in neat Katakana to the side of the printed list he'd been given at the start of the semester. "It's your lucky day then, kid. Yamanaka, move to the next seat back. Uzumaki, you're-"

Sasuke's mouth dropped as Ino moved her things into the desk behind her with an annoyed groan.

Uchiha.

Uzumaki.

_**Fuck no.**_

"No, he's not."

Sasuke's interruption caught everyone – but maybe Naruto himself - off guard. He wasn't the type to blatantly talk back to his teachers, even when most of the teachers here were laid back and used to people doing it. (The culture clash between the Westerners, who were often very rude to teachers and got away with it, and Easterners, who were very polite, had frankly desensitized most of them.) But nonetheless he looked cold, irritated, and frank. Jiraiya opened his mouth to reply, but Naruto, who was still grinning maliciously, cut him off. "But _Sasuke_" (His voice positively _dripped_.) "I only just met you, you can't hate me so much already"

"On the contrary, I really _can_."

"All the more reason for him to sit with you," Jiraiya interjected. "Naruto, go sit down. Uchiha, stop complaining. Everyone, let's resume class."

Naruto passed four rows and dipped into the one Sasuke and a few students he wasn't looking at sat in, walking slowly towards him before wheeling lazily to sit in the chair behind him. (His grin was tooth, sadistic, and painfully lusty. Sasuke was _itching_ to punch him.) School lasted from 7:15 to 3:30, Tsunade had said? _Oh_ could Naruto deal with that.

--

It had been unconsciously suspected by both Naruto and Sasuke that the blonde would be rejected by the school population, especially after his extremely _open_ outburst of his attraction to Sasuke. He spent all of class staring at his back, taking in his features with more precision than he had before, and there was something all too _Naruto_ about it. He was a firm believer in free love, but that usually came in the form of intoxicated sex, full of laughter and happy attraction. This was different, if only for the person, who was not some beautiful girl wearing bell-bottoms, a homemade shirt, and a flower in her hair, nor was a free concert and Marijuana involved in their meeting. Sasuke was the _anti_ of everything Naruto was usually attracted to- being pale, sulky, clearly unable to take a joke, and the stick up his ass impaled him so far he could sort of see it poking out of his mouth. The 'male' bit didn't bother him – free love was Naruto's specialty, but _god_.

He'd been lucky he'd asked for a size up in his pants and his shirt fell down low.

(He'd not _stopped_ being hard since he first saw Sasuke. Pissy-pissy emo Sasuke who made him want to cum his pants just _looking at him_, dear _god_. Naruto usually wasn't the type to get this obsessive, but in all of his years, he'd never seen someone who walked the line between male and female so perfectly, and he'd never felt his turned on. And in all of his years had he ever just _jumped_ someone. Naruto was more the type to woo someone he liked, but Sasuke was this perfect-looking little Korean and Naruto's boner pressed painfully into his pants. _God_.)

But regardless of the fact that Naruto had, very openly, declared he wanted Sasuke, when the Lunch bell came around, he was flogged with people. Both girls and guys flocked to him, naturally interested because he was a new kid, but they seemed to really like his confident attitude as well. Sasuke managed to lose him in the rush of attention, and if only with hopes of making his hard-on go away did Naruto let himself get swept off instead of chasing after his new-found and incredibly explicit interest. (Explicit meaning he wanted to _fuck Sasuke's brains out_, but he was a hippie, a free-lover, and so it wasn't 'fucking', it was more like 'making love', and it wasn't 'Sasuke', it was 'Heartbreak'. It all made plenty of sense to him, just like kissing Sasuke in front of Tsunade did. Just like Sasuke punching him with _much more_ force than his small figure seemed to reflect he could, and that just turned Naruto on even more.) He hummed lyrics with the flow of people.

(A lover, baby, and a fighter)

Naruto smiled, brilliantly.

The school had a formal cafeteria, but when he passed it, Naruto saw there were only a few kids eating in there. Apparently, everyone ate outside, which was pretty cool, since Naruto rather liked it outside, even if the weather in Japan was significantly different from that of California. The group of people who'd caught him chattered quickly, taking him to the shade of a tree wherein they sat down and broke out lunch boxes. (Naruto only wondered for a second about the lunch thing before Minato's voice appeared in his head "-Remember, kid, this school doesn't serve food, you bring or mooch. Don't forget to pack something.") He leaned back against the tree, crossing his legs and taking in his crowd, laughing at someone or another's comment occasionally before interrupting the group conversation with a-

"Hey, I know you all got the pleasure of learning all about me and a few of my loverly highlights, but you're all strangers with pitchies to me. Got any names?"

All of them raised a brow.

"… what does 'loverly' mean?"

"… and what is a pitchy?"

Naruto blinked.

"Doesn't matter. Talk and I'll listen, baby, it doesn't happen a lot so soak up the attention"

(And so Naruto learned that they were all _indeed_ a weird lot.)

As he learned, these were the more-or-less social kids in the school. Kiba, who Naruto remembered as being Spanish and having some BAMF red tattoos on his cheeks, and then there was Chouji, a big Irish kid who looked a bit insecure but most thick kids usually do, munching on some chips during most of the conversation but occasionally throwing in his two cents. Then there was this _really_ hot French chick, who Naruto would have noticed in a heartbeat had not Sasuke been in front of her before she moved back, named Ino. Apparently she had a boyfriend, Shikamaru, who seemed to polar-opposite her personality which only made Naruto grin. Shikamaru had been watching clouds during most of the conversation, like Chouji only occasionally throwing in his two cents, but he too was from America – Illinois, as it were.

Then there was another girl, who couldn't be described as _hot_, but very _cute_, who had been blushing mad-fever since Naruto saw her. He'd asked if she was okay, even reached out to touch her forehead, but apparently a little friendly-head checking wasn't so hot in Japan, so to speak, since she practically passed the fuck _out_. Her name was Hinata, and while she was 100 Japanese in blood, she'd lived in England most of her life with the rest of the family on business, and they'd sent her and her cousin to this school so they could reassimilate into the language and culture without having a break-period in their studies. Then the last girl, oh _shit_. She was _really_ hot. If Naruto wasn't absolutely _dead fucking set_ on having Uchiha, he'd go after her – an Australian girl named Sakura with dyed hair.

And if Naruto weren't naturally narcissistic as _hell_ (in the best possible way, of course) he'd be surprised at how much they liked him.

But he was.

And so he just grinned into all of the attention.

--

Sasuke was sitting on the opposite side of campus, teeth gritted and bottle of water in his hand, unopened but compressing to his tight, agitated grasp. Eyes screwed up like he was ready to send his fist through a chest cavity, at whim, but he'd been pissed off all morning, and anyone could tell. Sasuke was usually fairly calm, quiet, relatively polite for himself. He had his edge, of course, could snap at people or be sarcastic, but that just seemed to make people like him more. (Which was _ridiculous_, since he'd been pushing away attention for years. First in Korea and now in Japan.) He crossed his legs, tensely, from the bench he sat on, occasionally taking a glance behind him because he wasn't _stupid_.

(Sasuke might have not have punched Naruto so hard if he hadn't felt _that_ grinding into his hips.

_Godfuck_.)

"What the fuck's wrong with you, Sasuke?"

His eyes narrowed, glancing to the left wherein a press of weight made the rotting bench groan as Suigetsu sat down. (For Sasuke to be as blatantly conservative as he was, the friends he hung out with more often than not seemed unbefitting. Suigetsu had blue-white hair and barely ever left the school swimming pool, leaving his skin constantly waterlogged and eyes bloodshot, Juugo was twice Sasuke's size and about as bipolar as one could be, and Karin was the only one of his rapist fangirls he ever spent any time on, if only because she was actually very intelligent. There were others, of course, and him being president of the first year class meant he had to be social-esque by default, but those he actually talked to because he could were _nothing_ like him.) He set down the water bottle, returning to stare at _whatever_ he'd been looking at.

"Tsh. Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Hence why I asked, whoremouth. I heard you fucked up some new kid."

"Do _not_ call me that, else I punch you too."

"I'm shaking already."

"You usally are."

Suigetsu snorted, taking Sasuke's unopened water and ignoring the irritated noise of protest ('I was gonna _drink that_.', it said, but Suigetsu was usually dehydrated within twenty minutes of leaving the pool, some condition or another, so he had a knack of stealing water bottles from anyone around.) and twisting the cap open for a drink. "So what'd he do, insult you or some shit? Open palm the back of your ass?"

"Fuck you."

"Creative as usual. The latter was getting warm, am I right?"

"_Fuck. You._"

Suigetsu laughed.

Sasuke just glared.

--

It took Naruto all the self-control in the world for him to _not_ pounce Sasuke when school was over. (The day had been slow, repetitive self-introductions to teachers he didn't know or care about because Sasuke was in front of him, and _that_ was what he was looking at. Clean blue-black hair spiked in the back with some kind of product but Naruto couldn't tell what – it was hidden well enough to look more or less natural, black school uniform fitting snugly down his somewhat curvy figure, belt holding his pants up around his hips, which were a bit sharp but looked good on him. His ass, next, most of it pressed into the seat and so he couldn't see much, moved past the seat to his legs which fell down from the front, sometimes crossed, sometimes supported in set of bars under the desk in front of him, sometimes twisted around the legs of his own desk. Naruto barely touched his pencil through the entire day, just _staring_ at the back of Sasuke's body hungrily, and there would be these occasionally half-glances Sasuke would give him to check if he was still staring and Naruto would never bother to look away from them. He _wanted_ Sasuke to know he was staring. Gawking. Grin firmly held in place, slipping into a pleased Cheshire look when Sasuke's body would shift and he would see a little skin underneath his shirt or slip from his waist.)

Save for his lunch period, his boner had _not_ gone away.

Sasuke was almost painful to look at, because Naruto _loved_ pretty things, and Sasuke hit a line that was next to impossible in his own mind. Back in America, the only people who really looked androgynous were hiding their faces in black makeup, so skinny it was unhealthy, wore girl's clothing, and were generally the well done Emo stereotype. Sasuke was different, in that regard, because he wasn't _trying_ to look like a girl. Not a piercing on his body, no nail polish or eyeliner, none of it, but he looked fucking _beautiful_. It made Naruto squirm, trying to bite back making comments, but occasionally he would touch him, resulting in a hard elbow to _wherever_ Sasuke could reach. The rejection was about as evident as it got, but Naruto couldn't care for a second.

And so it took every bit of Naruto's reason to not just grab Sasuke and fuck him into the wall – though the idea had crossed his mind several times, and when the end-of-day cleaning was finished did he _crash_ into the Uchiha for a hard kiss to his lips, one which Sasuke had probably been expecting since he managed to avoid the contact somewhat when Naruto's mouth pressed into his lips and-

_Bam_.

Yet another punch.

Naruto grinned as a wave of pain sent fire through his face.

"C'mon, heartbreak, don't be like that"

Sasuke's fist came straight for Naruto's left eye when he moved to the side, quickly, both of them seeming surprised by the lack of painful contact and Sasuke jerked back fast enough for Naruto to not pull something stupid.

"Get. Away from me."

"Aw, baby, tha's gonna be a bit tough, but you'll get used to me soon"

Every bit of Naruto's self control to not follow Sasuke from where he wheeled around and stalked off, glancing to a few people who'd watched the ordeal with a grin.

"He's a keeper, that one."

(His cheek was bruising already. Sasuke could hit _hard_.)

They laughed.

Minato was waiting outside for him in the car, and Naruto was grinning ear to ear when he opened the door and popped inside, both of his cheeks sporting sickly looking bruises between Sasuke and Tsunade and school bag thrown over his shoulder. Immediately did he pull off the uniform top, taking the tye-dye wifebeater Minato offered as his father surveyed him with both surprise and amusement. He pulled the shirt over his head, taking the remains of a joint from his pocket and pressing it between his lips, flipping the nearest lighter and letting the tip burn with his inhale. (_God_ he'd needed that.)

"Did you get smart?"

"Nope. Got distracted."

Minato snorted, letting Naruto take a few drags before pulling out of the school lot. "Who're you in love with this time?"

"Uchiha-fuckin'-Sasuke."

--

Longer chapter, but.. mrr. I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. And omg guys! I was shocked at what a good reaction I got from everybody, thank you so much . It was only because of that really awesome response that I got this chapter our so fast xD Please review! I love feedback, and it pressures me to write faster, in a good way :D


	3. Young Lust

_**Brain Damage**_

_Chapter Three_

Sasuke sat alone in his room, _unbelievably_ icy, headphones in his ears to plug up any noise or distractions otherwise. Not like there was really any noise to plug up. His mother, Mikoto, was characteristically working with his father, Fugaku, overtime for the sake of working overtime. Itachi _may_ be home, but it was unspoken that everyone in the house had a _floor_. Sasuke's family was rich, both of his parents participated in International business, and Itachi's closest and only friend seemed to have a knack for predicting stock trends. Shisui actually had a knack for predicting much of _everything_, it was actually quite annoying. But the Uchiha mansion comprised easily of five floors, as well as a basement, an attic, and a storm-safe extra basement that was as well furnished as a regular room. The first floor was Mikoto's to do with as she pleased, mostly because it contained the kitchen, where she was nearly every waking moment she was not at work. The second floor contained the bedroom of Fugaku and Mikoto, which _should _mean it belonged to both of them, but it was really more his father's floor. It had the most office related material on it. The third floor was sort of a guest floor, and the floor the separated Sasuke and Itachi from their parents. It was the floor Sasuke used when Karin, Suigetsu, and Juugo visited. The next floor up belonged to Sasuke. He'd _wanted_ to live in the attic when he was little, because to the younger version of himself, the attic was cool and enigmatic.

But as he grew up, he'd grown fond of his own floor. Just as he'd grown fond of his room. Which was almost painfully _spotless_. Sasuke did not _have_ posters, not like most kids his age. He didn't have towers of CDs either, he didn't have anything that would make his room unusually _cool_ to someone else his age. His floors were hardwood, his windows were covered in curtains, and the only things on his walls were photographs. Granted, to the right teenager, that might be cool. Sasuke's one and only hobby was photography. He worshipped the idea that someone could capture time and space in an image with as little effort as pressing a button. He worshipped it probably more than what could be healthy, since he firmly believed in the idea that the existence of life was a temporary phenomenon, and that since the technology for capturing life on paper existed, it should be used as much as humanly possible. Aside from his photography, black and whites scattering his walls with the kind of brutal honesty of mug shots or crime scene photos, Sasuke's room was bland. There was a bookshelf, each row designated to something in particular, such as photo albums, textbooks, comic books, his DVD collection, etcetera.

As for the floor above his, the fifth floor, that was Itachi's. Of course it was Itachi's. It seemed too much like him to put as much space between himself and his parents as he was allowed. Sasuke thought it a little odd that his brother hadn't just _moved out_, since he seemed to hate living there so much. Then Sasuke could commandeer the 5th floor and everyone would be happy. (What a fucking joke.) No, right now, Sasuke was away from everyone, locked up in his room as if he actually had any problems, as if he had any reason to blast his music to try and get away from _anything_. No, Sasuke _had_ no problems. That was the thing. He had two parents who loved him, despite not being around much. He had infinite money, and thus could go to any university he wanted to. He was attractive, he wasn't dying of cancer, he was fine. Everything was fine. Why was he mad? Why was he blasting angry music to sooth his tortured soul?

Because of _Naruto_.

Calling him "It" would frankly suit him better. After much thought, Sasuke had pretty much come to the conclusion that Naruto was _infinitely _more irritating than Karin. If he wanted to give Naruto the satisfaction of unconsciously knowing he'd gotten to Sasuke, he'd have written them down. But he didn't, but instead compiled them in his head.

Naruto was a tall, blonde, unattractive brain dead _American_.

Naruto kissed him ten seconds into meeting him. Sure, Sasuke had kissed other people. But for the love of god. That, and Tsunade just thought it was so fucking funny.

Naruto was following him around. Naruto had grabbed him on _several _occasions, and what he'd felt pressed into his back was _not_ natural.

Sasuke had been harassed via text message for the last hour by him. Someone must have given Naruto his phone number, and he was fucking _pissed_. He had become so angry that, instead of turning off his phone and putting it in the closet so he could get his homework done, he had tossed it in the garbage disposal. Which ruined the garbage disposal. Which meant when Mikoto would be home, she would be wondering why the garbage disposal was clogged, and she would have one of the working hands fish out the remainders of Sasuke's phone, and then he'd be grounded for a week or so. Which would be a wreck. Not necessarily because Sasuke couldn't take grounding, he was _rich_, what could being stuck in a mansion really _do_. But because his mother always went through the I'm-A-Terrible-Mother thing every time she had to punish him, and Fugaku would endlessly compare him to Itachi, who could do no wrong.

But it didn't matter. Sasuke deserved it. Actually, Naruto deserved it. Naruto deserved to be tossed into a fucking garbage disposal. He turned up his music, grinding his teeth and returning to his Japanese work. His Japanese was flawless, it's not like it was hard, but he liked to take a very long time on his homework so his parents thought he worked hard. Truth, Sasuke was an overachiever. Just not a.. Graduate-University-At-Nineteen sort of overachiever like his brother.

--

Naruto was _all over the place_. Hyperactivity was not the right word. After collecting the numbers of four or five different girls who were clearly interested in him, he'd manage to get Sasuke's number among them. Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke. The name didn't seem remotely enough for him. Nor did his surname, Uchiha. Nor did anything. No, really, when Naruto got home he literally bolted out of the car, ran past his mother with a wave, and jerked off the bathroom. Despite what fit him or didn't fit him, this Sasuke thing seemed a bit out of control. He'd been into girls back in the states, but they didn't quite.. It was weird. Then again, that could have to do with that he was a guy. Naruto had slept with guys, yeah. But he never really crashed and burned for them the way he did with girls. And Sasuke. He snorted to himself, cleaned up after a shower and exiting the bathroom after about fifteen minutes to his parents, both sitting on the deck outside, smoking while the water on the stove came to a boil.

"Geez, kid." Kushina's nose wrinkled. "You smell way strong, go take another shower."

Naruto laughed, crashing next to them. "Pass." Took a cigarette from his back pocket and pressed it between his grinning lips, lighting it and inhaling deeply. Apparently now that he was in Japan he'd not only have a lot more trouble finding pot, but if he smoked it and got caught, it'd be a helluva bigger mess than back home. The radio sitting on the wooden floor was playing Pink Floyd's _Dark Side of the Moon_ album, soothing after whatever kind of day his parents had. Despite how the dressed and acted, they worked hard to support him. Hard enough to leave the best place in the world for tightass little Japan.

"So what's so good about this Uchiha-Fuckin'-Sasuke?" His mother asked, after a moment. Apparently his father had spilled. That's not surprising. Kushina wore the pants in that relationship.

Naruto snorted again, smoke escaping his wide smile. "He's-"

"Well that's an interesting start." Minato interjected, arching a brow.

But Naruto didn't seem particularly phased. "He's this pretty boy who's like… the president of the school or something, I dunno. But I sit behind him in all my classes. He's a fuckin' ride, no lies. He's _so_ uptight. Totally went ballistic when I kissed him, punched me like three or four times. It was great."

Kushina laughed sarcastically. "You're a complete idiot. Way to give him your genetics." – elbowing Minato.

The second day of school went somewhat better than the first. Not that the first necessarily went _bad_, per se. But it went. His teachers were all pretty cool, better than he thought they'd be. It was weird though. In Japan, you sit in one classroom all day while the teachers move to you. Naruto supposed it was to dissuade students from skipping. The only time you left was for gym class, art class, and music class.

Gym class turned out to be way better than he'd thought, because you have to change into these gay little uniforms, but Sasuke was in his class, so he got to see him change. During this period did he realize that not only did Sasuke have this gorgeous little androgynous excuse for a face, but his body didn't stray much farther from that path either. He was angular, kind of skinny, but he had feminine legs and a bit of curve in his waist. Naruto didn't know if it was because he was Asian or not, but the guy had _no_ leg or arm hair, it was kind of weird. And he got away with staring at him for almost five minutes, and then almost got away with touching him before Sasuke fucking _howled _in the most furious voice humanly possible and punched him in the nose, a definite crunch this time, but it likely hurt Sasuke's bony girl knuckles more than it did Naruto's cartilage.

In gym, they got to go outside, and it turned out the girls basically wore red panties and white shirts as their uniform. Naruto was very athletic back home, he had the Greek god physique going on and always loved sports, and nothing really changed at his new school. He woo'd everyone with his volleyball skills, which was the sport that his class was working on at the moment. His gym teacher, a sociopath of a woman named Anko, suggested he try out for teams. Naruto didn't object. The only thing he was working on was impressing Sasuke, who didn't even look at him until Naruto accidentally served a ball two inches from Sasuke's face, which caused him to jump like sixty feet (or maybe just a few inches), and curse at him in a way that made him recoil a little bit. The girls in class seemed very torn by this display, because they halfway wanted to yell at Sasuke for yelling at the hot new kid, and they halfway wanted to yell at Naruto for almost crushing Sasuke's face with a rubber ball. It also came to Naruto's attention that Sasuke was somewhat athletic too. Despite the fact that the boy had no developed muscles to speak of, he was fast, and had a mean spike. In fact, he had a _very_ mean spike, because Sasuke _was_ aiming for Naruto almost every time, and on several occasions did the ball smack him painfully in the shoulder or the cheek.

During art class, Naruto was totally lost, and the teachers didn't really help. The main teacher was this crazy guy named Sasori, who gave him a look when he came in but otherwise left everything to his intern, Deidara. Deidara was fucking _weird_. The guy, which Naruto had mistaken for a girl until he heard him speak, was really tall, and covered in sculpting material. His hair, a blonde similar to Naruto's own, smelled burned, and his working apron was barely hanging onto his body. He hung a "yeah" after everything he said, which was apparently an Iwa dialect which meant he was hardcore Yakuza or something, not like Naruto knew any of that until Kiba told him. And god, the _smell_. There was no way Naruto could possibly say how bad Deidara smelled. He smelled like a thousand rotting, burning corpses. Ten thousand. He smelled awful. Just- God, it was bad. Art class was also the class where all the cell phones and iPods unanimously came out. Naruto had a cell phone, but he didn't use it much, save to send Sasuke eighty or ninety sexually explicit texts on his drive home from school until finally it stopped saying that the message was delivering. He asked Deidara what to do, and was only granted with a "Whatever the hell you want, yeah. Pick a subject from the jar and go."

The Jar was something all of the other kids had taken slips from at the beginning of school. The slip would say something, just a word, and the word was your artistic concentration. You would work on something concerning that word every day for the entire year. Kiba had "Dog", which Naruto considered kind of un-fucking-fair since apparently Kiba had like 10 dogs at his house and.. kind of looked like one, now that he thought about it. Chouji got "Nature". Ino got "Glass". Sakura got "Self". Shikamaru got "Anger", which Naruto thought was kind of funny and ironic since the guy was so apathetic to everything. Hinata got "Snack food". Etcetera etcetera. When Naruto went to get his slip, there were only a few left in the jar anyway, and no one was looking, so he thumbed through to pick one out. His choices were "Clowns", "Laughter", "Books", and "Fear". Naruto wasn't an artist anyway, but he took clowns. Clowns could be trippy, and he could pull of surrealism. He had a boner for Salvador Dali, _easy_.

The only free seat was between Sakura and Hinata, not necessarily to his dismay, but it wasn't where he wanted to sit. He was watching Sasuke. While most of the kids were working with paints, or pencils, or prismacolor, Sasuke was working with none of these things, he was fiddling with a camera. He was the only person who was, which either meant he had special permission, or no one else could afford something as fancy as that. It wasn't a regular digital camera, the lense on that thing was _huge_. It looked like one of the $900 cameras back home, at Wal-Mart. Only.. better. His company were a weird crowd, a guy with blue hair that had almost 100 percent prune skin, a hot nerdy girl who was hanging all over him, immediately sending a pang of rage into his stomach, and a huge guy who seemed blank at most. None of them looked like they were worthy to be with _Sasuke_. And it took him thirty seconds of staring before he got up.

"Where are you going?", Sasuke asked, mixing paints.

"Supplies."

"Do you need help? Deidara-sensei's not got this place organized very well."

"Nah, I got it. Thanks."

To which she resumed back to her self-portrait, which actually looked really good, a lot like her. At least, the sketch on the canvas did. The color that was eventually going to be her hair didn't look like her hair color at all. But it wasn't his place to judge. He was in no way an artist. So he slipped away from them, slip in his pocket, grinning like a devil and appearing at Sasuke's side when one of his seat partners got up to wash brushes or something.

"Heartbreak~"

"Leave me alone."

"God you're cold."

"Less than zero, leave me alone."

"Can't. See, I'm lost. And you have to show me around because it's your job."

Sasuke gave him a flat look.

"You're _lost_?"

"Yeah."

"And where are you trying to get."

"In your pants."

Suigetsu, who'd been watching with interest, burst into laughter, while Sasuke went red with anger immediately. Before he could respond, Karin returned with a tray full of fresh white paint, glaring bloody murder at the back of Naruto's head. "You're in my _seat_, get _up._"

"No, it's okay. You can sit in Sasuke's."

"_I'm _in Sasuke's."

And with an apparent suicide wish, Naruto swooped him up out of nowhere and pulled him into his lap, boner pressing hard as a rock into Sasuke's ass, only getting harder when he struggled. The smaller of the two of them growled deeply, and Karin shrieked in disgust. There was half a second of pause before Sasuke threw his weight to the left, grabbing the back of Naruto's head and slamming it forward into the table, right into Karin's current paint tray, wriggling off him as the blonde cursed and inhaled and a mouthful of black acrylic.

"Leave. Me. Alone."

Thirty minutes of brushing his teeth and tongue out, Naruto had pretty much come to the conclusion that no matter how bad that shit tasted, or that the inside of his mouth was black, fuck yeah. It had been worth it. He'd grinded into Sasuke. Yeah, worth it. If Deidara had been a teacher who cared, he would have sent at least _one_ of them to Tsunade. But all he'd said was that he'd wasted expensive material. Sasuke left class early with a headache, unaccompanied by his snorting friends, but he obviously couldn't have been that messed up, because he was back the next period.

By music class, the last class of the day, Naruto had learned a number of things. During classroom hours, Naruto could touch Sasuke all he wanted and the Uchiha wouldn't budge. He would just sit there and take it, apparently trying not to attract attention to the molestation. Then, during the teacher transition, he would punch him in the face. But that was like, almost an hour of class each of fingering Sasuke's neck and shoulders, and a little bit of his back. He'd also learned that Sasuke was getting increasingly used to hitting him, and every time he hit him, it hurt more. Naruto learned Sasuke hung out with Karin, Juugo, and Suigetsu, and no one else. He learned Sasuke was single, but had never dated anyone at the school. He learned that Sasuke was superfucking rich, and the top of the class, and blah blah blah basically perfect. He learned that Sasuke did photography during art class because he was really good, and that his photos were on display in the school gallery, which Naruto skipped lunch to go look at. He learned that Sasuke lived in this really upscale mansion, and could get the address for the measly price of 2000 yen, which was a little over $20 American dollars. Naruto coughed up the money without question. Who needs to buy _stuff_? Hell, at this rate, if he got Sasuke to go out with him, money wouldn't be an issue.

During music, Naruto learned Sasuke played the piano. Music was basically just Chorus, with a few kids playing instruments. Sasuke was one of them. He got to play the piano instead of sitting in stance trying to get everyone's pronunciation just right for some stupid bar on some stupid song or another. Naruto was supposed to sing, and he was placed in the back row of the baritone section because he was _tall_ in comparison to most of his classmates. Which was weird, since he was considered tiny back in America. Whatever. He learned that Sasuke played the piano, but he learned that he had to wear glasses to play it, and they looked really cute on him and suited him well. In fact, Naruto spent the entire period trying to figure out how to kiss Sasuke goodbye (Sasuke was an abnormally good thing to kiss, even if he didn't kiss back, and it was indeed worth the pain) before the final bell ring, and Sasuke was _out of there_ like a bat out of hell. Naruto was almost amazed by his ability to evade him, but it didn't matter. Naruto had already called his father and told him he didn't need a ride.

After all?

He was taking a bus to Sasuke's place. And upon arriving, basically planned to ravish the hell out of him. That was pretty much the plan.

Yeah.

Good plan.

xxxx

Omigod D: I'm sorry this took forever, guys. I totally just.. lost interest for this story after two hours. And then I suddenly got interested again. I hope you can forgive me :( Please review though D: I totally don't deserve it.


	4. Baby Lemonade

_**Brain Damage**_

_Chapter Four_

Two variables sent Naruto's plan awry before Naruto even left his music class. The first variable was that Sasuke, who was grounded, was not allowed to take the metro home; he was being picked up out front by his irritated brother. And the second was that Naruto had only been in Japan for fewer days than he had fingers, and he barely could pull a legitimate sentence together that made sense, let alone find his way from school to the address on the note he had crumpled in his pocket. He could have, of course, tried for a Taxi, but Naruto had spent all of his pocket change just _buying_ the address, and so all he had was his student train ticket to go where he needed to go. Of course, none of this was actually occurring to him as Sasuke ducked out of the room, he was only grinning like an utter fool, each of his thirty-two teeth dazzlingly white and unusually sharp.

Itachi was waiting for him outside when Sasuke managed to get out of the sea of students, Shisui in the passenger's seat and the back apparently left to him. It was _Sasuke's_ car, as Sasuke was one of the few people in Tokyo who indeed actually drove, but he was grounded and had his keys taken away. That was the only thing his mother had actually taken away from him, and she'd probably sent someone out to buy him a new phone when he was at school, because it was for "emergency situations". Wordlessly, he climbed into the back, Itachi silent and Shisui smiling gently.

"Sasuke-kun~ How was school~?"

Of all of the people in the direct Uchiha line that Sasuke met regularly at important dinners or family reunions or whatnot, Shisui was the strangest. Unlike most of his family, which tried to be utterly professional at all times, spoke in formal Japanese at all times, and kept their accents from showing at all times, Shisui seemed truly not to care. Another oddity about Shisui was his appearance which was.. feminine, at the very least. This wasn't necessarily uncommon, being Korean meant there was an amount of baby fat always clinging to your face, it meant that you curve a little bit more than most, and for the Uchihas, it generally meant you didn't grow much facial hair. But Shisui went _beyond_ that. No, Shisui's face was curved, but it wasn't curved in an Androgynous way, it was curved in a _feminine_ way. In fact, so was the rest of his body, he was only a little less curvy than his _mother_. Sasuke had pretty much come to the conclusion that Shisui had long since given up on trying to look masculine (he distinctly remembered times in his childhood when his older cousin indeed _did_ try, and it didn't work. He just ended up looking like a lesbian.) – and instead embraced the way he looked. He grew his hair out to his shoulders, wore clothes that suited his figure instead of clashed with it, and tried to stop making his voice sound deep. Shisui's problem was that he could _not_ shrug off his Korean accent, for whatever reason, and thus his Japanese voice sounded feminine too. Granted, he spoke in masculine forms, _boku wa_ instead of _watashi wa_, but overall, Shisui was indistinguishable. The only reason Sasuke recognized all of these things about his older cousin was because he'd spent much of his childhood _staring_ at him, trying with all of his might to figure out what Itachi saw in him, why _he_ was so cool. Of course, in his maturity had Sasuke gotten over that jealousy, but he still noticed things about Shisui. Like how he was wearing girl's jeans.

"Fine." He lied, shortly.

Itachi was fairly quiet, paying attention to the road. Sasuke remembered when Itachi got his license, his parents had been so proud of him – as per usual – and tried to buy him a car. But Itachi had said "it would be a waste of money for me to drive when I have access to public transportation", which had somehow made his parents even _more_ proud of him. Their fixation with him was ungodly agitating. Shisui apparently felt it alright to end the conversation there, which was unusual for him – he usually wasn't above small talk – but an Uchiha trait Sasuke was grateful for. The family was quiet, never asked each other important questions unless they needed to, and generally tried to stay out of each other's way if they could. The only times his father ever talked to him was to compare him to Itachi, the only time Itachi ever talked to him was to say short things like "Mother and Father left town abruptly. The number is on the fridge.", and his mother only ever talked to him to ask how school was, and to tell him dinner was served. It was a good system. Sometimes, they didn't even bother with that, they sent emails or left notes on the fridge. That was an even better system. A family with no communication never argues. He yawned a little from the backseat as Itachi weaved through traffic.

Naruto, several blocks away, was having issues. The address read as:

〒100-8799  
東京都千代田区一番町 二丁目1番2号

Which _sucked_. Naruto was _bad_ with Kanji, and he was even worse with postal addresses, and so it took him fifteen minutes to finally translated what it was:

Subarea 2, Block 1, Building 2, Ichibanchou

Chiyoda, Tokyo, 100-8799

To which Naruto became even _more_ confused. His obvious first question was "Where the hell is Ichibanchou?", and when he got one of his classmates to answer that one (It was apparently this upscale place where only rich businessmen lived or something, which he _guessed_ sounded like Sasuke), and then when he found out how far out it was, it begged another question. Why the _hell_ didn't Sasuke go to school there? _Yeah_, he's Korean, but his Japanese was really good, he didn't need to be in an International school. Not that he minded or anything, it just. Didn't make sense. Nonetheless, he went to the main train station. To get to the Banchou area you apparently had to take the Chuo main line because that was apparently the west boundary of it. From there you get off and take a bus into Ichibanchou, a residential one, and eventually he would find Sasuke's place. This _sounded_ like a good idea to him, but it basically ensured he would get lost in a country he'd only immigrated to a matter of days ago, and could barely find his way to the grocery store from his house to buy more instant ramen.

--

When Sasuke arrived home, there was indeed a new iPhone laying on his desk, probably put there by Ms. Choi, the head servant who'd come with them from Korea. Instead of hooking it up onto his computer to refill it with applications and music and the contact numbers he needed, he ignored it, flopping onto his bed and closing his eyes. This Naruto thing was getting to him. It was kind of embarrassing it was getting to him so _soon_, but they usually didn't.. start that fast. Not even _Karin_ started that fast, and she started fast. In a matter of two days had Sasuke been kissed more by a single person than he had in his entire life by anyone else, save for maybe his mother. In a matter of two days had he gone farther sexually than he had in his entire _life_. In a matter of two days had he been touched more by another person more than he had in his entire life, and it was really. _Really_ starting to irritate him.

For one thing, his back _tingled_ indefinitely. Probably because he was used to being hunched over, working all the time, and Naruto constantly massaging him was increasing his blood circulation, and he wasn't used to it so it felt weird. And, yes, it _did_ feel weird. He felt like there were bugs constantly crawling under his skin, and it made him jumpy and agitated. For another thing, the rumors that he was gay and dating the new kid were getting out of control. Sasuke normally didn't _care_ about rumors, but the last thing he wanted was to be hauled to Tsunade's office for "public displays of affection". There was indeed a rule against PDA, and for the most part it wasn't enforced, since there were so many cultures constantly clashing in his school, but if anyone were to have that rule enforced upon them, it would be Sasuke. After all, he was a model student. Perfect grades, relatively athletic, class president. All of that. He was the kind of person that if he broke rules – which he'd done quite frequently in the past few days, assault being the most pertinent – and it's always the people who don't break rules that are most severely punished for misdemeanors.

How irritating.

Itachi had left him to do his homework, or whatever he wanted, for the fifth floor, accompanied by Shisui. Whatever they were doing, they were being utterly silent about it. After a few minutes of sitting there, eyes closed and fingering his hair in agitation, Sasuke managed to pull himself off his feet and went to the elevator. Normally, he would take the stairs, as the elevator basically showed he was lazy, but he was tired and didn't feel like exerting any more energy than he needed to. When he reached the bottom floor, he went to the kitchen, heating up the Wok and pulling bags of vegetables from the refrigerator. He wasn't much of a cook, mostly because Mikoto cooked dinner every night she was home, and Ms. Choi usually cooked every other meal for himself, his brother, and any other day guest, but she was probably off doing something more important. Like getting the dust out of all of the unused rooms. He tossed broccoli, some leftover noodles, and tomato pieces around in the pan for a few minutes before pouring the contents into a bowl and collapsing onto the couch in the living room, leaving the kitchen a wreck.

There really wasn't anything on TV, as per usual. 800 channels, and Sasuke could never find anything worth watching. He ate his lunch silently, an ambient music channel playing quietly just so there would be _something_ on (he was one of those people that hated the way TVs and computers looked when they weren't on), and it was just as he was finishing the last of the noodles that the doorbell rang. It almost made him jump. The Uchihas lived in a secluded place, in a private neighborhood, you had to have a pass code to even get in, and so the only people who ever rang the doorbell were delivery or maintenance. The live-in employees just walked in. He waited for a moment, and not hearing Ms. Choi's stilettos clicking down the steps to answer the door, got up to answer it as it clanged over and over.

--

Naruto was grinning all Indian summer, all dazzling, genuine joy when Sasuke answered the door that he threw himself in before the Uchiha could even comprehend what was happening to him. The look in Sasuke's eyes, which Naruto registered seconds before they were too close to see clearly, was of sheer, utter horror, and that just made Naruto even happier, in a "Ha ha, look what I caught" sort of way. In a split second did he grab Sasuke's narrow shoulders, each of which fit easily in his larger hands, and pressed him into a crème colored plaster wall, kicking the door closed behind himself and kissing him _hard_. And in that split second, before Sasuke comprehended exactly what was happening to him, did Naruto realize a few things he'd somehow missed in all of their other one-sided attempts at kissing. Sasuke had very, very soft lips. Very kissable lips, the kind that would look good with a piercing, the kind that aren't sticky with gloss but aren't dying from cold weather either. They were abnormally nice lips. They would fit quite nicely around his cock, for that matter. But then again, they would probably fit nicely anywhere.

And then Sasuke finally reacted, and he made this horrible little noise underneath his mouth and threw Naruto's weight off of him, growling like a monster.

"What are you _doing here_?"

Naruto grinned at him. "I love you." Approached him again without any hesitation, which caused Sasuke to back up a few feet up the staircase. It was actually a little wounding, for a microsecond, to see him retreating from him like a gazelle threatened by a lion. But not wounding enough to _stop him_, because Naruto meant it. Naruto was the _God_ of love at first sight. Naruto had been in love four times in the last two years, and it wasn't to say that the loves weren't real; he felt them fiercely, deep in his heart and completely unshakeable. But he was much like Romeo. Before Romeo fell in love with Juliet, there was Rosaline. And Romeo loved her, he loved her so much he felt like he was going to die. But when he saw Juliet at a party, he fell out of love with Rosaline without another thought, and in love with Juliet. That was Naruto's tendency. And so when he said he loved Sasuke, he did mean it. He meant it as intensely as any other time he'd fallen in love.

Sasuke blinked, in a not particularly clever retaliation, forgetting to step back when Naruto advanced forward another three feet. And then it came to him what Naruto said, and it came to him that it was pretty much impossible that it was true, as Naruto had only met him two days ago, and then he became aware of a weird taste in his mouth, and very aware of the fact that he was suddenly and impenetrably angry. And the only thing that stopped him from either breaking Naruto's jaw or breaking his own knuckles was losing his balance when a strong pressure hit his back, and he made an exasperated noise as gravity betrayed him, stumbling forward straight into Naruto's open arms, dodging colliding into his face and ending up catching his broad, American shoulder into his own delicate little throat.

Shisui smiled brilliantly.

"Sasuke-kun~ Your new boyfriend is darling."

--

It took a bag of ice and five minutes of coughing straight before Sasuke finally got a hold of himself. He'd completely had the wind knocked out of him, and went into a somewhat embarrassing and thoroughly complete fit because of it, Shisui scrambling about for a bag of ice and Naruto not laughing like an idiot for once. It took another fifteen minutes to explain that Naruto was _not_ his boyfriend, and despite the fact that the stupid blond wouldn't get his hands off of him (they were almost always around his shoulder or his narrow waist, occasionally pinching his ass when he apparently _wanted_ to be elbowed in the gut), but Shisui wouldn't hear any of it. It was as if he and Naruto were on the same fucking frequency. Itachi came down to the scene after waiting for twenty minutes for Shisui to return upstairs with tea, only to find his baby brother in the arms of someone twice his size in every direction, and Shisui grinning to ear like it was so damn funny. Itachi's only reaction was raising an eyebrow, which, to Sasuke, somehow sent the situation from bad to unearthly worse, before going to fix a kettle to make Jasmine tea as he and Shisui did just about every day around this time.

When the two of them were _finally_ gone, which didn't actually make the situation any better because that just left him alone with Naruto, Sasuke was dead quiet and his company was looking nothing less than guilty. There was an exasperatingly long pause before Naruto finally said "Are you all better, Heartbreak?" But he didn't sound agitatingly Cheshire about it, didn't sound like it had all been some weird plan, and for some reason that just pissed Sasuke off even more. And when he finally spoke, his voice was positively _dripping_ with anger, "I have been _better_."

Naruto's ears almost flattened to his head.

"Sasukeeee," he whined, tugging on his shirt. "Don't be like that, be mad at your brother's girlfriend for pushing you down the stairs."

He didn't even really have it in him to correct Naruto, on that not only was Shisui a guy, but also his first _cousin_. He pulled the bag of ice off of his throat when he became more aware of how cold it was versus how much his neck hurt, which was the general indicator that you were all better. He didn't say anything, but tossed the bag onto the coffee table, the ice cubes tossing merrily against the glass but never managing to escape the bag.

"Sa_sukeeee_."

And somehow, that voice, which was in the most irritating octave humanly _possible_, made Sasuke snap.

"God will you _stop_," he snarled, angrily. "I don't _want you_."

Naruto perked up visibly, as if taking his irritation as a sign that he was indeed okay, and that it would be alright to continue in his advances. He leaned toward him, grin sneaking up onto his face, hands on either side of Sasuke's hips but not touching him anywhere. "_Please_." The way he was whining it was embarrassing, and Sasuke automatically leaned away from him, glaring in the most livid way possible. "_Please_, Heartbreak~ I mean it. Go out with me. Just once, please? I'll make it fun. You don't even _know_ fun until I make it."

Sasuke stared.

This was.. kind of surprising. Surprising because he'd assumed Naruto's intentions were pretty much focused on the idea of sodomizing him and not much else, though of course – Americans were disgusting and there was a chance that the way Americans dated often involved sex on the first date. The idea made him sick, and it must of shown on his face because Naruto whined further, leaning closer. "Sasuke, come _on_, it'll be a ride. You, me, water, music, sand, roller coasters, and anything else you want. We can do that thing you Asians like so much, get in the little booth things and take pictures and put them on your cell phones or.. whatever." Naruto laughed, grinning. "Come on, _please_. If you don't like it-"

Sasuke caught him immediately before Naruto had the chance to take back what he almost said.

"-If I don't like it, you will fucking _leave me alone_."

Naruto's nonexistent dog ears flattened further, but he nodded in a defeated way.

".. then. Whatever. Fine. Just get out. I'm grounded right now, and if my parents come home and find you here, I won't go on _any_ dates with you because I'll be grounded until you go back from where you _came from_."

Dates.

Sasuke's stomach lurched at the word.

But Naruto looked utterly _elated_, the grin turning into a huge, honest smile, leaning in to kiss him again but Sasuke evaded it disgustedly, the last one having left the taste of paint in his mouth that was still making him want to spit. "REALLY?" He yelled, nearly in his ears as Sasuke cringed. "REALLY REALLY? NO LYING?" The smaller of them nodded, expression sour. "OKAY. OKAY. I'M ALL OVER IT. YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW. I'M ALL OVER IT LIKE WHITE ON MOTHERFUCKIN' _RICE_, HEARTBREAK. YOU DON'T EVEN _KNOW_."

"Dear god will you _shut up_."

"NO."

"Get out."

"I'M GOING. I'M GOING. I LOVE YOU."

"You are a _liar_, get _out_."

Sasuke's stomach twisted again, forcing Naruto out the front door and bolt-locking it behind him. Shisui chuckled behind him, lingering with crossed legs halfway down the stairs. "Not your boyfriend, is he?"

"Silence yourself, you are _putrid_."

"Ah, what wicked words~"

--

Hey guys. :D Back with another chapter already. I know right, I must be on a roll. A roll which will probably end soon because I started my period today and ohh it hurts so much and I'm an emotional mess and it's bad ;__; really bad. And for the record, Shisui is a real character, not an OC. He is mentioned to be Itachi's best friend and that Itachi drowned him, but you never got to saw what he looked like. But since Itachi didn't kill the clan in this story, Shisui's going to get some facetime here :D And.. uwa. Even though I'm on a roll, I dislike this chapter immensely. But D: I hope you guys can deal.

**CumCakes**: Your reviews made me blush really hard. First, they were long, and everyone looooves long reviews. And secondly, they totally gave me the ego boost I needed to write Naruto, I've been kind of down for a few days. And thirdly, omg you have the best penname ever. LMFAO.


	5. The Post War Dream

_**Brain Damage**  
Chapter Five_

Naruto found himself almost depressed that, despite his best efforts, things weren't moving very far with Sasuke. Granted, he was almost _never_ depressed, and the only time he probably ever had been was when a girlfriend he'd been wild for had dumped him abruptly, and he'd wallowed in his room for about a week solid before bouncing back, good as new. But Sasuke was really killing his spirit. Granted, school was something he thoroughly enjoyed attending, though he'd barely learned anything since he'd gotten there. He just _stared_ at Sasuke through his cores, every bit of him fascinating, something new to look at through the week. And, depending on which teacher was in the room, he would touch him relentlessly, much to the discomfort of his love interest and the people next to him, all of which were charmed by his too-cool and too-weird attitude, but didn't quite know what to make of his... gayness. Granted, Naruto was not gay. Nor was he straight. Nor was he bisexual. He was _pansexual_, which basically meant he would fuck anything he wanted, but that wasn't really true either. Despite being surrounded by a hoard of hot girls, many of whom very interested in him, Naruto couldn't be deterred at _all_. He was roped in by Sasuke like a disease, and it was because of this that his mood was beginning to dampen.

It had been on Tuesday that he'd gotten Sasuke to agree to go out with him, and, so as to not let the Uchiha conveniently forget, Naruto had been pestering the living hell out of him. This somehow hadn't been working quite to plan. On Wednesday, Sasuke had come to school with his phone – he'd seen him texting while he was messing around with a lense trying to look busy in art – and Naruto had tried to bug him about it because, for whatever reason, every time he tried to text Sasuke, it bounced. The next day, he asked how much longer Sasuke was grounded, and he said he didn't know, but probably throughout the week. And on Friday, Sasuke did such a good job of evading him and his questions that Naruto was a bit stunned – and charmed – by the sheer ninjaness of it.

Because he was in Japan, it meant he now had to go to school six days a week, so when Naruto was awoken on Saturday morning at the same time as the past five days, it was easily understood he was cranky and annoyed at the idea. His friends – a group which was pretty much composed of the original number he ate lunch with, though he was growing increasingly closer to Sakura than anyone else – didn't seem to quite understand what his deal was, and were a little disturbed to discover that in America, you only had to go to class five days a week. In fact, most of his friends had Cram School after regular school, because each of them fell into one of two categories: underachiever or overachiever, and the underachievers went to catch up in class, and the overachievers apparently went to flaunt how good they were at being taught things. This surprised him, the reason not being that the idea disgusted him – which it did – but that Sasuke wasn't a part of this ritual. If anyone was an overachiever type, it was Sasuke, but apparently he was so smart he didn't need to be in Cram School.

And like _hell_ was Naruto going to go to bullshit Cram School. Going to school on Saturday was bad enough; he wasn't going to escalate his culture shock by _learning_. That would require _effort_, necessary effort which he needed to expend on seducing Sasuke.

So on Saturday morning, he came to school barely on time as usual, _just_ managing to make it in his seat before the bell rang, when he noticed something strange. Something was wrong. And he didn't know what it was for a moment, maybe because he was so thoroughly exhausted and he'd only been out of bed about ten minutes, before he realized he had nothing to touch. Sasuke was not there. Sasuke. The overachieving, perfect, class dictator, _thing_ was not in school. Naruto's sleepy mind jumped to alertness, trying to figure out why this was happening, what to do. If Sasuke wasn't in school, he had no reason to be. But if Naruto left now, what if Sasuke showed up late and he totally missed him? But if Sasuke was sick at home or something, caught paint poisoning or whatever (Naruto's tongue was _still_ a bit black), and Naruto didn't leave, he'd just be wallowing in bed alone all day. And what if today was the day Sasuke was going to tell him they could go out, but then he woke up sick, and now Naruto wasn't going to get to know because he was too busy sitting around? The utter emotional trauma it was causing him must have been visible on his face, because Sakura prodded him softly.

"You okay?"

Naruto shook his head, defeated.

"Sasuke's not here."

Sakura glanced at the desk, like she hadn't noticed, jumping a bit in surprise. "Maybe he's sick."

"Yeah."

She obviously didn't understand the utter _magnitude_ of the situation. Which wasn't necessarily her fault. _She_ wasn't waiting around every second of every day for Sasuke to man up and give him a free date. Not that.. Naruto really was either. He'd been home smoking a lot, blazing up in his room and listening to old music, slowly decorating it to suit him. Naruto was a _very_ slow unpacker, and so he still had ten or twelve untouched boxes taking up floorspace, but he'd begun filling the walls with stuff. Posters, fliers, whatever. Japan was really weird to him. Going in certain places of Tokyo meant you'd just be collecting fliers like crazy, and he couldn't even read half of them because they were all in weird fonts, and Naruto could barely get by with the standard Japanese font. He'd slowly begun tacking up the fliers on his walls, and planned to go to a show advertised on one of them tonight if Sasuke said he was still grounded. But now, _oh_. Things were different now. Forget going to a show with stupid Japanese music he couldn't even understand well. There were wildly more important things to be dealt with. Like how Sasuke wasn't there. Sasuke'd been there yesterday. And the day before that. And he was a perfect kid, so how bad could his attendance record really be? Naruto's mind was going ninety to nothing, and his head scrambled all through his first period until he finally decided to be patient and wait for him. He probably just... had an appointment. Maybe to get a physical, since you had to have one of those to go out for any of the athletic teams, and Naruto himself was signed up for one next week. He still hadn't decided what he wanted to do, but he heard Japs really liked baseball, and Naruto was pretty good at that. Did Koreans like baseball? Did _Sasuke_ like baseball, was the more pressing question? If he did, that'd be a really easy way to show off—

Naruto snarled, inwardly.

(Baseball is not the topic _at hand_, self.)

Sasuke didn't show during second period. He didn't show during art, either, and for the first time that week, Naruto focused on his concentration. Almost. Instead of legitimate sketchbook paper (he kept forgetting to ask his parents to buy him one, since it was a classroom requirement), he doodled clown faces on loose leaf. The clowns _themselves_ weren't particularly good, but he was decent and drawing bubbles of lines and color around them like 60's psychedelic art. But every few seconds, he would look over at Sasuke's usual table, where Karin and Juugo were sitting alone (Suigetsu was apparently almost _always_ missing, and the rumor was he was at the Gym pool all the time because of aqua deficiency. That sounded like BS to Naruto, but then again – at the time – he didn't even know the school gym _had_ a pool.)

He wasn't there for lunch, where Naruto ate ramen from the stand near the school with his friends. Naruto _liked_ ramen, good _God_ he literally had no comprehension of how much he liked ramen until he came to Japan. In America, it was hot water and three minutes if you can dish out $0.70 for a package. In Japan, you could get some _really nice_ ramen, already cooked and with chopsticks and everything, for only a bit more. In fact, Naruto had decided he liked ramen so much that he was going to eat it for all of his meals, which Kushina and Minato didn't object to because it didn't make a wreck of the kitchen. But no, Sasuke wasn't at lunch, and he wasn't back in the classroom after that. And he wasn't in the locker room, and he wasn't in the gym (rain meant smacking rubber balls around _inside_ instead of outside, and Naruto learned Japan was a lot rainier than California _ever_ was), and Sasuke wasn't in the hallway waiting for the class to be over because he'd woken up late, and then had to go to the doctor's, and came to school anyway out of some weird goody-two-shoes principle.

No, he wasn't there.

It was all very distressing, and when they finally came back to the classroom for their last core of the day, Sakura gave him a look.

"He's not coming. Sorry, Naruto."

Sorry wasn't strong enough. Naruto fumbled through the next period, putting his head down for the first time all week to go to sleep, but unable to because he had a subtle paranoia that Sasuke would come into class but Naruto would be asleep, and then Sasuke would leave to go home and Naruto would have missed him anyways. But he power napped in ten minute intervals, jerking awake only to find the seat before him unoccupied, and he even managed to do this through his music class until the final bell rang and Naruto was _out of there_. He practically _fled_ to Tokyo Station, grabbing a 1000 yen bento box on his way, grabbing the Chuo line to Sasuke's place.

Although Naruto had only visited Sasuke once, he'd refined how to get there with the help of his parents, who both interpret Japanese and trainline maps better than he could. If he took the Chuo line, it'd be about a ten or fifteen minute ride to the Banchou area, and catching this one bus with the kids who just got out of the rich kid school would take him into the suburban area where Sasuke lived, and once he got to the gate of his neighborhood, he had to climb up the hedges about 100 yards out of the way, but if he cut through a bunch of backyards unnoticed he could make it Sasuke's in about 45 minutes from school. It would be a lot _easier_ if he could just go through the main gates, but you needed a passcode, guest or resident, to get in, which Naruto did not possess because Sasuke would not give him one. And so the second Naruto got out of school, he worked his usual route until he was in front of the Uchiha home, standing back to get a good look at it with a squint.

It was.. big. It was _really_ big. At least four visible floors, and he had no way to know which floor was Sasuke's, so climbing up the side of the house wouldn't do much good. There were no cars in the driveway, but that could just as easily mean they were in the garage, and Naruto stomped his foot in irritation. He really didn't want to ring the bell. That old maid lady _really_ didn't like him.

He grumbled in irritation for a moment, but, seeing no better option, walked to the front door and pressed the bell. Fifteen seconds later, the old maid lady answered, and she frowned at him, crossing her arms.

"Yes?"

"I'm here to bring Sasuke his homework." (Naruto had worked on that excuse on the train.)

"I'll just take it then."

(Fuck my life, woman _move_.) "Actually, I have to explain it to him, the project and stuff, since it's due Monday and the teachers are all off tomorrow."

The maid gave him a look, clearly not liking the idea of letting him inside, but he smiled in the most charming little way and she finally opened the door for him. "Sasuke-sama's-" Naruto had to contain his laugh, really. _Sama_? "-upstairs, fourth floor. Take the elevator and be quiet please."

Naruto grinned ear to ear, nodding fervently. "Thanks, babe. Catch you."

Trying to not appear too eager, though his heart was pounding because, uh, _why_ was Sasuke upstairs in his bedroom? He'd spent the entire day thinking about it, pondering reasons why he wasn't at school, but he skittered into the elevator she pointed to, hanging inside and pressing the "close" button. It was one of those huge elevators, the kind airports have, which Naruto thought was kind of refuckingdiculous since no one in the house was utterly _obese_, but he pressed up to the fourth floor, bouncing on the balls of his heels. The house was great, and even though he had a completely one-tracked-mind, he did manage to notice all the nice shit everywhere. It wasn't anything like the place he and his parents had squeezed into, but frankly, he liked that _more_. The house his parents had bought all at once was as far removed from the business districts of Chiyoda as possible, which was kind of frustrating, but the place was cute, cozy. It wasn't an apartment, like everyone else's places, it was a real house, kind of crumbling at the foundation. The whole place kind of smelled like new paint, rotting wood, and marijuana, but it suited his family. It was just. Nice. Sasuke's house made him feel like that time he went to a music festival and his camera batteries died, and he ran around to all of the closest places looking for batteries but they were all sold out, so he ran to the Hilton to the gift shop because they _did_ have batteries, but the bellman almost didn't even let him in and the front desk bitch kept trying to tell him he couldn't buy from the gift shop because he wasn't a guest, and he ended up throwing a bit of a fit until the manager sold him the batteries and escorted him off the premises, and by the time he'd made it back to the festival, the band he'd really wanted to see was wrapping up their set.

The bell rung as the doors opened, and Naruto blinked in irritation. _Like_ a hotel, the elevator opened halfway down the hall, but unlike a hotel, nothing was labeled. It was just doors. He started to the right, opening every door along the way in frustration. Most were bathrooms, and empty bedrooms with so little decoration to them that they had to have been guest bedrooms, and there was a laundry room with no dirty clothes anywhere, and there was a darkroom (Naruto didn't go in there because this door _was_ labeled DARKROOM: DO NOT ENTER in an ominous font), and the last door on the end was just an emergency staircase that was really nice like the rest of the house, even though emergency staircases were supposed to be grimy and disgusting and gray and not air conditioned.

He snarled in annoyance, doubling back, opening all of the doors until he finally came upon one that was leaking music, and it took all of the self restraint he had to knock twice before entering. (He didn't have enough self restraint, it appeared, to walk in _after_ Sasuke said "come in".)

Naruto positively _groaned_.

There was no one in there.

But instead of leaving immediately, he stopped, looked around. The room was big, it wasn't even really a room, it was more like a suite. The color scheme was mostly blues and whites, and there were framed photographs lining the walls, black and white prints that Naruto supposed Sasuke had taken himself. They were nice, in a dramatic emo photographer sort of way. He advanced in a few steps, glancing over his shoulder before shutting the door with a grin. Everything, no matter how much he searched, was over-organized and totally innocent. Sasuke had _no_ porn, no condoms, no little bags of cocaine, nothing. Not that Naruto expected Sasuke to be a cokewhore, but seriously, a teenage _guy_ who didn't have any porn? Maybe it was an Asian thing. All of his books were straightened up, the grant total of them being books about art, about photography, or books about science. He didn't find any CD stacks, much to his dismay (he was curious as to what kind of music Sasuke was into), but he did find a movie collection, which really wasn't much better. Most of Sasuke's movies were Korean – big surprise there – along with a few Japanese (Naruto had seen a few Japanese movies, but they left much to be desired. Like big explosions, guns, and huge guys beating each other up.) The only English movies Sasuke had were the huge hits, like The Dark Knight, the kind of stuff everyone had.

Naruto yawned deeply, flopping onto Sasuke's bed. Sasuke's bed smelled _weird_. He'd expected it to be one of two things: A. Smelling permanently like sex, as almost all beds possessed by teenage boys did. Or B. Smelling like Sasuke, as it should. But no, this bed left a whole lot to be desired. It kind of smelled like orange juice. Which didn't surprise him, because there was a can of what he could barely make out to say "Tropical Rush Aerosol" sitting on the bedside table. But that's all it smelled like. He even pulled back the covers and smelled the sheets directly, but there wasn't anything. Maybe they were new. Maybe, because he was so rich, Sasuke just got a new bedset every time he dirtied the old ones. Naruto kicked out of his shoes, climbing into his bed, staring at the ceiling, eyes a bit glassy. This was what Sasuke saw before he crashed out every night. Or if he slept on his left side, he saw.. a bookcase. And if he slept on his right side, he saw… Oh god.

Naruto's heart lurched.

There was a _door_ there. A _closed_ door. A closed door which was vaguely emanated the noise of water hitting tile, which he hadn't heard initially because there was some classical music coming out of Sasuke's speakers- Sasuke was in the shower.

It kind of hit him all at once. And then he got really, _really_ hard, swallowing thickly.

If there was ever a chance to just _jump him_, it would pretty much be right now.

Naruto slid out of Sasuke's bed, sort of half-heartedly wishing Sasuke would either come out and find him there, or his door would be locked, but neither was the case and he palmed the doorknob for a moment before twisting it and pushing the door open a silent crack. If he were looking at anything but the blurred out figure behind the textured glass doors, he would notice that Sasuke's bathroom was as immaculate as the rest of his room. He would see how all of the towels were in order, he would see his hairbrushes weren't clogged up with hair, he would notice a single bottle of cologne sitting on the sink, which he would have probably stolen and sprayed all over his bed. But no, Naruto was just _staring_ at Sasuke, who was construed heavily enough between steam and the glass's melted texture so that he couldn't _see_ anything, but he could pretty much fill in the blanks. The figure was enough.

He glanced at the floor for half a second, noticing that all that was scattered on it was a pair of pajama pants and underwear, which meant Sasuke really _had_ been home all day sick. Or whatever. Sasuke just seemed like the type who always wore day clothes unless he was legitimately asleep, but then again, Naruto barely knew anything about him _really_. In fact, being in his room right now was probably the way he could learn everything he wanted to about Sasuke, but he didn't budge from his spot. Naruto was utterly _torn_. Going right in there, if Sasuke was sick, could actually be more disastrous than if he weren't, which Naruto thought was kind of incredible. But if he didn't do anything, Sasuke would just come out and find Naruto conveniently in his bedroom, and then he'd get all paranoid and bitchy. If he grabbed clothes for him and left them in his bathroom and then waited on his bed… no, Naruto couldn't do that. He honestly didn't have enough self-control for that. He swallowed, hand darting between his legs, rubbing at himself roughly through his clothes, no doubt making the situation _worse_ for himself, but he felt like he was going to fucking _die_, he was so turned on. And he did this for two seconds tops before the water stopped and he _froze_, at a complete loss for what to do, and before he could pull himself together enough to do _anything_, Sasuke stepped out.

Naruto immediately felt sick, as everything he'd thought about all day came into perspective.

There were bruises. _Everywhere_. Most of them appeared in hard lines across his chest, spine, legs, shoulders, and they were all fresh enough to be from this morning, black with a blue tint. Naruto jerked back from the door, heart pounding hard enough to break out of his ribcage. Good _God_, what the _fuck_. That was all he could think. God, Sasuke looked like a fucking _wreck_, and the guilt of every stupid thing he'd thought for the entire stupid fucking day hit him like a foot to the gut. And then another thought crossed his mind, what the _hell_ happened? Those didn't look like the kind of marks you got from getting in a fight with someone, they were too... wide, they weren't isolated. And Naruto knew bruises. He didn't dare look in again, and his blood was pounding so fast he couldn't hear what he was doing, and Naruto really considered running right there for half a second before he gave into a much ballsier, much more idiotic impulse.

He burst into Sasuke's bathroom, looking nowhere but his face, and practically _screamed_ "SASUKE, WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED."

And Sasuke didn't even jump. His eyes didn't get wide, he didn't prickle, he didn't get angry, nothing. (Granted, he was wearing pants by that point, but.) He just stared back at Naruto in this really tired, ghost way and went "What are you doing in my room?"

--

No matter how much Naruto pestered him, Sasuke wouldn't directly answer any of his questions. He wasn't necessarily telling him to get out, which was a start, but he wouldn't say a word on what had happened, which only worried him more. Naruto helped him into bed, Sasuke's expression sour as he muttered "Have you been in my bed?", and he gingerly helped dry him off. Whatever Sasuke was feeling, or how much pain he was in, or how annoyed he was to have a visitor, it was all summed up into a single, constant expression. And Naruto would just _not shut up_. Sasuke, what happened. Sasuke, does it hurt. Sasuke, are you okay. Sasuke, is anything broken. Sasuke, who did this to you. Sasuke, do you need a painkiller. Sasuke, I have pot, it'll numb out the pain, if you want. SasukeSasukeSasuke. He sounded like a whining mother, and he didn't stop until Sasuke finally gritted his teeth and said, in the darkest voice he'd ever heard:

"Naruto. Please be quiet."

His ears flattened a little, but he obliged.

They sat in a pained silence for several moment, Sasuke closing his eyes as if to get a breath of air, Naruto looking like a kicked puppy. And the silence held for about a minute before Sasuke opened his eyes again, and asked, quietly.

"Why are you here?"

"… because you weren't in school today 'n I got all flipped out."

Sasuke stared. Honesty was weird, and Naruto's perpetual use of it perplexed him. "This morning I fell down the staircase."

Naruto's heart skipped a beat. This was both relieving – at least no one had purposely _done this_ to him, and it looked like he was telling the truth because the bruise patterns were consistent with hitting flat, dense objects – and angered him further, because he couldn't do anything about it. If a gang had jumped Sasuke on his way home or something, Naruto could have torn them the fuck apart. He usually advocated peace, love over war, and the like, but he'd had violent streaks in the past, and all of them concerned his love interests of the time. He snarled a little, and Sasuke just closed his eyes again.

"Does it hurt?"

"Not as much as you'd think." Naruto frowned, and Sasuke continued awkwardly after registering it. "I should be fine. Nothing's broken. I can move okay. I just couldn't this morning."

Naruto exhaled sharply, but nodded.

They sat in an uncomfortable silence, before Sasuke asked, expression twisting more into irritation - "Did you see me?"

Naruto snorted in a desperate sort of way. "Not as much as I'd hoped, Heartbreak."

"I'll go on your date tomorrow."

Naruto jumped a little, in surprise. For the first time in _days_, he'd seriously not been thinking about it, and Sasuke mentioning it somehow made him feel worse. "Nuh-uh, you're all banged up. We'll do it later." Naruto grinned a little, trying to cushion the blow Sasuke probably didn't know he'd dealt, and leaned close to him. Sasuke, either calling his bluff or genuinely too tired to care, didn't lean away from him like usual, "That's the only day I'm free until next week." Naruto's heart thudded, painfully. Despite the bruises on Sasuke's body practically _screaming_ at him to be the bigger man and turn him down, he couldn't help but think, another _week_. What if next week, he fell down again. Or broke his leg. Maybe Sasuke was _really_ accident prone, and this wasn't news to anyone but him. He bit his lip, shaking his head.

"I'll.. I'll come by tomorrow and.. hang around for awhile. And if you feel better by like, seven-" Sasuke stared. "… I mean, uh, nineteen o'clock or whatever you crazy Japs call it, I'll take you out to where I want to." Naruto nodded, then said quickly before Sasuke could interject. "-But if you don't feel better, me hanging out doesn't count as the Date, because you'd automatically not like it because you're all... rag dolled."

Sasuke shrugged, snorting a little. "Okay."

Naruto's heart leaped, and he broke into a smile, kissing him out of habit. Sasuke growled, turning his face, and the blonde braced for a hard punch, but it never came. He peaked open an eye, giving Sasuke an expectant look, who sighed, irritated. "I tried to catch myself on my hands, all of my knuckles already hurt. Don't touch me again."

--

It was late before Mikoto finally got home, and she rushed into Sasuke's room, expression twisted in genuine concern. Her youngest son was in bed, reading, and he jumped a little at her presence. "Darling, are you alright?"

Sasuke nodded once, setting the book down. He had ice packs all over his front, and the swelling had gone down immensely since Naruto had _finally_ left, and he generally looked a lot less like a blunt force trauma victim than he had before. "Did Ms. Choi take good care of you today?" He nodded again, as she inspected him further. "It looks a lot better. Are you feeling better?" Sasuke nodded a third time, not really feeling like talking for all that he'd done earlier. She smiled, touching his cheek and pulling the covers back over his torso. "That's good, I- Did you have those this morning?"

Sasuke froze. Oh god, _those_. Stupid, stupid fucking Naruto.

"Yes, Mother."

"Why aren't they iced?"

"They were, but I was cold."

Mikoto sighed, nodding. "Poor baby, I'm so sorry. You should go to sleep."

"I will soon."

"Alright. I'll see you in the morning."

He nodded as she stood, turning off the overhead light on her way out, and he exhaled heavily. Stupid, _stupid_ fucking Naruto. He groaned, turning out his lamp and putting the book on his bedside table.

--

So yeah, most of this chapter was a filler piece. I just had a lot of fun writing Naruto's obsessive thought process xD And yeah, I didn't just... throw Sasuke down the stairs so Naruto could see him naked, there's actually plot in there somewhere. Please review~! D: reviews make me write a lot more than just having inspiration, which is kind of sad, but still true. alas. I only got a few last time, it was a bit saddening.

ALSO: THIS CHAPTER WAS OVER 5000 WORDS WHAT.

ALSO AGAIN: DATE IN NEXT CHAPTER, I PROMISE.


	6. Learning to Fly

_**Brain Damage**  
Chapter Six_

Sasuke was up by 0600 hours on Sunday morning as he was every other morning, feeling much better than he had the morning before. What had happened and what he'd said had happened were two different things, but as per usual, he was more than prepared to let it pass. He was the type to dwell over things, to brood and to obsess, but he _wasn't_ the type to tell anyone else about it. His mother was already off to work when he awoke, a note on his desk (back to the System) telling him to feel better and to take care of himself. The accident had wordlessly lifted his grounding, as it should have. Being pushed down a flight of hardwood stairs was more punishment than humanly _necessary_ for temporarily rendering a garbage disposal useless, but he wasn't really afraid of consequence anymore. These sorts of things had been happening to him since he was little, just as they had happened to his parents, and their parents. It was how things worked. He sat up gingerly, expecting a wave of pain as his nerves lit on fire, but it never came, and so he worked his way out of bed and stripped out of his shirt. Everything looked… better. The bruising had gone from black and blue to more of a purple-yellow scheme overnight, which meant that they were healing nicely. When they went to the yellow-brown phase, it meant that it would only hurt if someone was stupid enough to press on them, and so he slowly changed into more decent clothes, jeans and a three-quarter sleeved shirt that concealed most of it.

He took the elevator down to the ground floor, his mother's floor, where Itachi was uncharacteristically sitting at the dining table and eating breakfast. Itachi usually took his meals in his room, and he never really came downstairs unless Shisui coaxed him into it, and Shisui was nowhere to be seen. The older of the two raised an eyebrow in greeting before returning to his newspaper, and Sasuke dug around in the pantry for a box of cereal. A bowl and half a glass of milk later, the two of them were sitting across from each other, eating silently and not sparing the other a glance. This was the sum-total of Itachi and Sasuke's relationship. Total silence. Two people who happened to have lived together for most of their lives, for were at one point even close, but were now less than roommates. Sasuke finished first because he didn't have a newspaper to distract him, putting the bowl and the spoon in the sink, and returning upstairs to take a shower.

He felt better, more like himself. Not on painkillers he'd stolen from his mother's medicine cabinet after it happened. He could barely remember how the hickies had gotten on his neck like that, other than that Naruto had done it, nor could he remember what Naruto had told him the directions for the project were, or if there even was a project. At some point, his memory just started to blur out, erasing the unimportant things based on how much Hydrocodone he'd taken. He stripped out of his clothes, which he'd only just put on but Sasuke was too proud to wear pajamas downstairs, and stepped into the shower, the bathroom door locked because he _did_ remember Naruto was planning to come over again. Oh god, and that stupid date. He'd agreed to go today, _why_ had he done that. He felt like he'd been run over by a truck. Not a sixteen wheeled tanker truck, like he had yesterday. But still about three tons of metal and glass. He sighed, pulling the taps and starting the trigger for a hot shower. It came out scalding, but he didn't _vehemently_ mind the burn, it was kind of relaxing, really. A pain that too intense to let his mind drift to other things, and he let his skin seize and steam for thirty seconds before turning down the temperature and pouring a yen coin's worth of shampoo into his hand and working it into his hair.

Naruto was coming again, god. What a wreck. Sasuke was really, really sick of him. To most people, having a relatively attractive person pursuing you so persistently would be flattering, but Sasuke wasn't flattered whatsoever. He was just tired of it. He couldn't do anything or go anywhere without Naruto tailing him, touching him, kissing him, and he'd apparently escalated into sucking his neck. It was just _exhausting_, and he was starting to consider dating someone just so the blonde would leave him alone, but Sasuke knew that wouldn't deter him whatsoever. Which annoyed him even further. He rinsed the soap out of his hair after a few moments, turning off the water and stepping out of the shower, taking a towel and trying to inhibit the cascade of water just aching to ruin his floor. He groaned, in an exhausted way, sitting on the edge of the tub as he ran a towel through his hair, and rubbed his eyes.

God, he just genuinely did _not_ have the patience for it.

After he was sufficiently dry and redressed, he returned to his bedroom, lingering there for a few moments before taking his reloaded iPhone and his camera to the darkroom. Sasuke's darkroom was the one place in this house where no one but he was allowed. Itachi's study had a similar rule. No maid was allowed inside, nor any parent, and no one had the key but himself. Even Ms. Choi's skeleton key didn't work for Sasuke's darkroom, because it was installed on a different locking system than the rest of the house. He entered languidly, eyes adjusting to the red light which lit the room enough to be discerned, and sat in the deskchair, inhaling the development chemicals in a nostalgic kind of way. The room was _littered_ with photographs, hundreds of them, many of which would never see the eyes of anyone but himself. Sasuke's favorite subject matter was people he didn't know. He loved taking candid shots in Tokyo's messy, overflowing streets, and he loved the way people naturally looked. In portraits, people smiled, trying to look pretty, trying to be presentable. In candids, people were people. They never looked good, they never looked thin, they never wore their best outfits (unless he was taking pictures in the Harajuku district), and they never had their best smile on. If the world died, these would be the kind of photos that Sasuke wanted floating around in space, permanently in the hard disk of an unmanned spacecraft. Not _his_ photos, but photos of the human animal as they really were. He sighed, in a content sort of way, setting his camera down. He didn't really feel like developing pictures. He didn't really feel like doing anything, save for maybe being distracted by Naruto, which was ridiculous because he _hated_ Naruto and they both knew it.

There was a moment of two of dead, thoughtful silence before his phone suddenly vibrated, and it was loud and exceptionally irritating to him, more irritating than it should have been. It was a text. It was a text from _Naruto_, which probably meant he'd snuck a look at his phone when Sasuke was too stoned off his ass to know what he was doing. Or something. It read he'd be over soon, which was irritating because it was barely the morning, and Naruto didn't even know if he was awake. But he knew that, regardless, Naruto would just _show up_ the way he seemed to make a habit out of, thus he ignored the message and thumbed through the photographs. Sasuke had only ever dated one person _ever_, and it had been a very non-physical relationship. They most they ever did was make-out, and even that was rare, and awkward. And the only reason this was relevant to his thought process was because he had about ten _thousand_ pictures of his ex, very few of which he'd ever had the heart to get rid of. The break-up hadn't been messy, or anyone's fault but maybe his own parents. Moving to another country kind of had a tendency to destroy decent relationships, that's just how life worked. He tossed the handful of pictures aside, standing up a little too fast and ignoring the blur of a headrush.

Sasuke returned to his room, straightening up what little mess there was. Got rid of the bags of water that used to be ice, put the note from his mother away, and laid a towel down on his bathroom floor, where water still glistened. He didn't really know if he wanted to go out today. The amount of pain he was in was easily ignorable; Sasuke had a high tolerance and always had. It was the actual Going Out part. He could fake sick _easily_, Naruto seemed genuinely concerned about his condition. But it was that fact that kind of made him falter a little. _Genuinely concerned_. He vaguely remembered Naruto fighting him a little on the idea of going out today, and the apparent reasoning behind it was that Sasuke was hurt, blah blah blah, stay in bed and get better, blah blah blah.

He yawned a little, spraying a bit of water on his face and ignoring the tap on his window. A few seconds later, another tap. Then another, this one louder. Sasuke's still-sleepy mind didn't realize what it might be until there was a loud bang that was mercifully not followed by the sound of broken glass, and he angrily crossed to the window, pulling back the curtains.

Naruto.

Stupid, stupid Naruto, who was too cool to use the front door. He opened the window.

"HEARTBREAK, TOSS DOWN THE ROPE LADDER, I KNOW YOU HAVE ONE."

"Naruto _shut the hell up_, I have _parents_ and _neighbors_." But regardless, unfolded the emergency fire ladder and tossed it down four stories to Naruto, securing the hooks and returning to his bed. About thirty seconds later, Naruto climbed up through the window, looking just _so_ fucking smug with himself that it pretty much sent all thoughts about going out with him out the window. Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You look like a delinquent."

"You look _delicious_."

"Wounded victim fetish?"

"_Undeniably_, baby."

"That… is unsettling, thank you."

Naruto just laughed, taking the words as weird and rare Sasuke humor. "You look less drugged out today."

"_Thanks_." Sasuke replied, dully.

Naruto's grin didn't fade, his too-blue eyes sweeping to Sasuke's neck, and the smile just widened up to his pierced ears. The two of them were silent for a moment, Sasuke's nature telling him to offer a glass of water or something because that was how he was brought up, and Naruto's nature trying to determine if Sasuke was healed enough to jump him. Sasuke _seemed_ better, really. And he wasn't just thinking so to soothe his own head. The bruising was yellow, which meant it was better, and the guy was walking around easily enough. That, and his pissy mood meant he was in his right mind. The day before had generally scared him. Not enough to leave without covering Sasuke's throat with hickies, but the way he was acting was too… uncharacteristic. He'd notice a bottle of Hydros in Sasuke's bathroom, which he had barely resisted taking, and so Naruto eventually concluded that, yeah. Heartbreak was okay. And yeah, he looked fucking darling, as usual. And yeah, he wasn't going to let him worm out of his promise. Yeah. That was his conclusion.

Naruto ended up staying at Sasuke's house for _twelve hours_. It was murderous, and clearly planned because who the hell arrived at anyone's house at _seven in the morning_ when the date time was at _seven at night_. Sasuke's face was permanently screwed up into an expression of irritation while Naruto babbled and touched him and babbled more and touched him more. The blonde managed to go through everything in his suite, every single thing, and how he'd managed it Sasuke could not _comprehend_, since Sasuke was so edgy about anyone rifling through his shit. Twelve hours of Naruto looking through his books, asking about all of them. Looking through his photographs. Going through his boxes. Looking at his movie collection. Looking through his iPhone, asking about all of the music. To shut him up, at some point, Sasuke _insisted_ to watch a movie, his personal favorite. Naruto had initially been irritated at the idea, it was a Korean film called _Oldboy_ and Naruto didn't know Korean, but then he realized it was like having two dates in one day, so he finally calmed down long enough to watch it. Sasuke had managed to put on English subtitles, and the movie fucking _blew Naruto's mind_, it was so weird. It was _good_, but it _weird_. Sasuke had put up with an hour and a half of Naruto cuddling the hell out of him – which kind of made him sick – but at least for that time he was _quiet_, because when the lights came back on, the talking started immediately. For everything he touched, Naruto had a question. Sometimes five. By the time seven o'clock rolled around, Naruto finally had the pleasure of meeting his _mother_, which made Sasuke even more sick to his stomach. He had _no_ idea what Shisui had told her – hopefully nothing, since she probably just assumed, as mother mothers do, that he was straight – but Mikoto seemed to like him fairly well. She even cooked dinner early so they – Sasuke, Naruto, Itachi, Shisui (he'd appeared at some point during the day, but seemed to be in a quiet mood because he said nothing at dinner), Mikoto, and Fugaku all had Italian for dinner before Sasuke left to go "show Naruto around since he was new to Japan".

It was awful. It made it sound like _he_ was taking _Naruto_ on a date, and Sasuke was more than aware of the questioning look on Itachi's face as he was half-dragged out the front door. (Ms. Choi seemed to be wondering how, precisely, Naruto had gotten into the house without her knowing, but never voiced it.)

When they were outside, Naruto immediately started walking down the long stretch of path leading to the neighborhood gates, and Sasuke saw this as his chance.

"Hey, how far is that?"

"A couple blocks, why?"

"I don't know if I can walk that far."

"We could take your car?"

"My father won't give me my keys back until tomorrow." This was a complete lie, his mother gave him his keys yesterday, but Naruto didn't have to know that. Unfortunately for him, the expression on his face didn't look somber and hurt, but a Cheshire grin erupted on his face.

"Well, y'know, I could just carry you."

Sasuke groaned internally. Naruto grinned externally. He'd thought ahead, he really had. The backpack he was wearing contained everything he'd thought of possible to use against Sasuke unless he tried to back out last minute. Even a snake-bite kit. Then again, if Sasuke actually got bitten by a poisonous snake, Naruto would probably freak his shit and speed him off to the nearest ER, and the date would be over, but he didn't think even _Sasuke_ had the nerve to rub his ankle in front of a cobra _just_ to get out of a date. Besides, Naruto had it all planned out, it was gonna be really nice. He even made this huge deal about how to get there, and tested it himself late the night before, just to make sure it worked, and it did. Which made him even more smug than he already was. Having apparently won the argument, he took Sasuke's hand and tugged him along, and after about fifteen feet Sasuke begrudgingly yanked his hand away and shoved both of them in his pockets, following along. He'd brought a wallet, of course, just in case things went completely awry and he needed to leave immediately. And his phone, another of-course. His parents hadn't bothered with a curfew, all they expected was that he be at home and awake by 0600 hours, as always. And he'd brought a small can of mace which he didn't expect to need to use, he knew he had a good enough of a right hook to get rid of most anyone, but Naruto's determination was a little.

Yeah.

When they were out of the neighborhood and on the suburban busline, Sasuke finally sighed in irritation and asked where the hell they were going. All Naruto said was, in this annoyingly smug little way, "You'll see, and if we make the right train, we'll be there in no time." To which Sasuke only rolled his eyes, as that was typical in Japan. You could go _anywhere_ in Japan in no-time if you were willing to pay for the bullet train, but Sasuke highly doubted Naruto was going to try for one of those. He cracked his knuckles when they debarked (Naruto already had a monthly pass for _his_ suburban line, which Sasuke found ridiculous), and boarded the Chuo West Line. Naruto babbled endlessly through that ride, before abruptly saying it was time to switch trains and get on the next one, the next one being the Izukyu Express.

"Short ride my _ass_, we're going to Shirahama?"

Naruto's defeated expression actually made Sasuke shut up for a second. "Well, yeah, I mean. You're not supposed to act like you know though."

Sasuke gave him a long look before sighing. "I mean, uh. Are we going to Shirahama?"

Naruto grinned again, but it somehow didn't quite have the energy it had before, which kind of twisted Sasuke's stomach. Shirahama wasn't... a _bad_ place. Considering Naruto had been in Japan for a week, it was a really good choice for a date. Any date, first or fifth. It was honestly _too_ good a choice for a date, it made Sasuke a little uncomfortable. Of course, concerning Naruto, Sasuke was _always_ a little uncomfortable, but. Shirahama was a nice little town, but more importantly, a beautiful vacation spot. Sasuke had only been once – when he was ten or eleven with his family – but the beaches were white and the water was clear. It had been winter then, so he couldn't swim, but he'd heard that during the summer, fireworks were shot off on the beaches every single night, and the place was beautiful. Yeah, this was too good of a choice. Naruto barely seemed to be able to speak coherent Japanese, let alone know about beach spots. Or maybe it was just because he was Californian and immediately went looking for a place with decent surf. Regardless, Sasuke was a little perturbed.

There was a moment of silence before Naruto yawned, arms above his head, and oh-so-discretely did his arm just happen to fall around him, to which Sasuke only rolled his eyes but didn't bother shrugging off. He didn't have a chest to be invaded anyway, what did it matter. Nobody else was on the train. Really, he understood the idea of trying to get to Shirahama at night so they could catch the fireworks and such, but even so, it would take three hours easy. Which would mean they'd get there sometime after ten in the evening. Even though Sasuke didn't technically have a curfew, Naruto had to have _something_, right? He was starting to regret lying about the car thing. Any way he looked at it, he was getting back late, and it would have been nice to just be able to drive home rather than take that many trains and buses, then walk all the way back to his house, probably alone. He rolled his eyes at the thought, jumping a little when he felt Naruto's nose brushing the side of his head and his lips brushing his temple.

"Get off me, idiot."

"Take a nap." Naruto's voice was kind of soft, kind of tired. "Ride's long. You look like suicide. I'll shake you when we're there, yeah?"

Sasuke's skin went cold as Naruto talked quietly into it, and he shook his head. "I don't look like _suicide_, thanks for your concern."

It would, of course, be humiliatingly inevitable that Sasuke _would_ fall asleep, just as Naruto said he would. But, at least, Naruto crashed first. And, biological clock telling him they were almost there, Sasuke jolted awake ten minutes away from Shimoda Station, having _not_ somehow fallen asleep nuzzling Naruto's arm or his cock or something. He groaned, rubbing his eyes a little, prodding Naruto hard as the warning bell rang they were almost there. The blonde shook awake fairly fast, expression bleary.

"We're almost there."

"Yeah, yeah, Heartbreak, I got that part."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, checking his phone, which had been on silent for most of the day. There was a missed call, strangely enough from his _brother_. He wormed out of Naruto's arms, standing up and redialing him, waiting a couple of rings before Itachi's cool voice answered.

"Hello?"

"Why did you call?"

"Eloquent as usual, otouto."

Sasuke snorted, and Itachi continued. "How long are you going to be out?"

"That's a decent question. We just pulled into Shimoda Station."

"What are you doing _there_?"

"Another decent question."

Itachi's sigh was enough of a response. "I'll be back before I'm supposed to."

"As you always are."

"Is that really why you called?"

"Don't sound so surprised."

"I'm hanging up then, if that's all."

"Always a pleasure hearing your voice."

"We should do it again sometime."

Sasuke hung up, pocketing the phone as the train drew to a stop, Naruto visibly filling with energy as if the air were secreting caffeine that only affected him. Sasuke blearily rubbed his eyes and got an espresso shot from the station's coffeeshop, which Naruto _insisted_ on paying for. The air of Shirahama was nice, calm-before-the-storm type weather, however when Sasuke inspected the sky, there weren't any clouds in any direction. There were even a few stars out, which Sasuke rarely saw, as he lived in one of the biggest cities in the world. He paused and simply stared, breathed, for a few moments, but Naruto broke him out of it by tugging his arms and whining "C'_mon_, Heartbreak, we gotta catch a bus to the beach."

Sasuke sighed, irritated, allowing himself to be tugged along onto a bus – which Naruto _also_ paid for – that was being boarded by a dozen people dressed in swimtrunks and bikinis. Resolved to the idea that he was sick of being on his ass, Sasuke stood for the trip, holding onto a bar, Naruto apparently too energetic to sit either, and so he talked. He talked for five minutes solid before he finally shook his companion, "Oi, Sasuke. Snap out of it. You just slept."

Sasuke snorted a little. "No, I just _woke_."

Naruto grinned, leaning forward to kiss him, halting when Sasuke didn't immediately jerk out of the way, expression colored surprise. The shorted of the two of them just stared, in this half-expectant half-daring sort of way, and Naruto grinned awkwardly. "Now you're jus' taking the ride out of it."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, but didn't budge. "Articulate, aren't you."

When they stepped off the bus, Sasuke smelled nothing but the sea, and he sighed in an _utterly_ content way that made Naruto smile, not grin, and take his hand too-tight for Sasuke to wriggle out of. Naruto tugged him along into the sand, which was a bit crowded with people – couples, he noticed with a bit of annoyance that showed on his face – but it wasn't so crowded as to be suffocating, and the sun had set so it wasn't too hot, either. Naruto pulled them along to an empty stretch, unzipping the backpack he'd been sporting for the entire night and pulling a red and white gingham blanket from it, flattening it across the sand and giving Sasuke an expectant look. The expression was identical on Sasuke's face, which only made him snort.

"Yeah, see, we could'a done a candlelit rooftop dinner with a romantic band playing and spaghetti and shit, but your mom already fed us, _so_."

Sasuke chuckled, sitting down and rolling up his jean legs, Naruto's grin widening more and and he flushed with pleasure. He'd just kind of made Sasuke laugh, and not as his own expense. Kind of. This wasn't too hard. Naruto tugged out of his shoes, digging his toes into the sand with a nostalgic laugh, and the two of them sat quietly, Naruto having done the unthinkable and run out of things to talk about. But that didn't last for too long, as a set of fireworks launched and exploded in the sky, reflecting off the water and too aesthetically pleasing for anyone to ignore. But his question didn't pertain to that, and it weakened the content expression on Sasuke's face just a smidge.

"What's the deal with your brother?"

Sasuke shrugged. "We came from the same womb."

"That's not what I meant and you know it."

Sasuke shrugged again, rubbing the sand between his fingers. "Prodigy."

Naruto blinked. "Prodigy in what?"

"Everything."

"Don't exaggerate, Heartbreak."

Sasuke stared, pulling out his iPhone. "Google him. I'm not kidding."

And Naruto stared right back for a moment before shaking his head, dismissively. "Nah, I… I guess I believe you, but like. Why do you make that face every time you look at him or hear about him or whatever."

"What face?"

"The constipated face."

Sasuke snorted sarcastically. "That's my regular face."

"But-"

"Don't press it, I'm in a decent mood."

Naruto went quiet. It was… calm, really. Not white-on-motherfuckin'-rice like Naruto said. Maybe he wasn't trying to run him around everywhere because he was so bruised up, or maybe it was because Naruto was just trying to slow down a little (likely the former), but the only word for it was… calm. After ten minutes or so, Naruto laid down to watch the fireworks, touching Sasuke's back, and ten minutes of agitation later did Sasuke lay down too, putting a foot and a half of blanket between them for good measure. But nonetheless, it was. Decent. Naruto was touching him in some way for the entirety of the stay. Holding his hand, touching his back, mouthing his neck, fingering his waistline- he was always, _always_ touching him, and thus Sasuke was always squirming a bit, but aside from that, it was… decent. Naruto got them drinks after a while, and offered to buy Sasuke some barbeque pork because apparently the barbeque in Shirahama was notorious, but he passed on it. And they stayed like that, chatting occasionally, mostly Naruto asking questions and it being a 50/50 chance or Sasuke brushing him off or vaguely answering him, for two _hours_. Two hours wasn't a long time, ordinarily, for a first date sort of thing, save for the fact that it was 0100 hours before Sasuke finally said they should leave. He was barely going to make it home in time, because of stupid, _stupid_ Naruto, but he didn't feel that angry about it, not really. And Naruto just sighed in this defeated sort of way before agreeing, starting to pack up while Sasuke watched the last of the fireworks go off.

It took three hours – which Naruto and Sasuke both slept through _again_ – to get back to Tokyo. Twenty minutes to get to the Banchou area (Sasuke was surprised, and also not surprised, that Naruto was dead set and walking him _all_ the way home), ten minutes to get to his neighborhood, and a fifteen minute walk uphill to get to Sasuke's house. The security lights went on as they moved onto the property, but luckily nothing else, though Sasuke being aware of Naruto's hand and pulled out of his grasp, a little self-consciously. And, not to be deterred, not even at 4AM, Naruto walked him all the way to the front door and kissed him firmly but closed-mouthed in front of it. Sasuke did not kiss him back, but he didn't tug away either. He didn't fight it, but he didn't quite consent to it, and in Naruto's head this was finally a step up, after a week's worth of effort. (To him, this was a _very_ long time.)

"…so," he started, mouth tingling gently.

Sasuke didn't say anything.

"So will you go out with me again."

Sasuke didn't seem particularly eager on budging from the silent angle. Naruto whined. "_Please_, Sasuke? Come on, we had fun. You didn't get impaled by a stray firework and I didn't try to rape you."

This was the kind of thing that should have made him snort, but he didn't, and Naruto frowned. Sasuke looked… thoughtful. Concentrated. And, after a pause that felt like hours but was more like seconds, Sasuke sighed.

"…fine, whatever. Same rules apply next time. Don't get lost on the way home."

And without another word or another attempt at a goodbye-kiss, Sasuke darted through the door and locked it behind him. He took a few steps inside when Itachi's voice made him jump out of his _skin_, it scared him so much.

"You're back late."

Sasuke glared at the direction of his voice. "You're up late."

"I am always up this late. You are usually stirring by this hour."

"Mind your business, _Aniki_."

"And your chastity, _otouto_."

--

Naruto was finally home at five in the morning, sneaking in the back quietly. Neither of his parents stirred, not necessarily to his surprise, and he crawled into bed without a word. And instead of sleeping, or being giddy because of how well his date went, or being giddy because there was promise of another one, Naruto shoved his hand down his pants and jerked the _hell_ off about four times in a row before he finally couldn't do it anymore and he heard his parent's alarm clock go off a few rooms away.

Sleep was gay, anyway.

--

God, my chapters just keep getting longer and longer. Wtf D: I don't want to write these long'a chapters. They take so much longer to write D: BUT OMG STORY IS NOW OVER 20,000 WORDS LONG. YAY! And, btw. Oldboy? One of the best movies EVER MADE. Guys, take my word. If you like revenge movies. And if you like Itachi. Watch that film. Because the main character is exactly like Itachi, and there's a total obvious ship in it but I can't tell you what it is because it spoils the amazing switch ending. **GO WATCH OLDBOY. FIND IT IN YOUR HORROR OR FOREIGN FILMS SECTION, LOLK.**

**RogueWriter14:** I HOPE YOU KNOW THAT YOUR REVIEW MADE MY BLUSH LIKE A CHILD :| I HOPE YOU ARE PROUD OF YOURSELF.  
**CumCakes:** As usual, your reviews are amazing D: I reread the passage in Chapter 4 about the Romeo/Juliet thing, and I realized you're right, it does kind of undermine the intelligence of the readers xD I guess I was trying to put emphasis on his flightiness more than anything else, and usually when people think of that play, they think devotion instead of flightiness. But you're right D:! And btw, if you like my style of writing, I suggest you read books by Chuck Palahniuk. His blunt style definitely had a huge influence on my writing, not to mention he's _brilliant_ and puts out nothing but gold. I recommend everything except Snuff and Pygmy.


	7. Let There Be More Light

_**Brain Damage**  
Chapter Seven_

Despite being _utterly_ exhausted the next day, Sasuke felt better. His bruises hadn't changed color, though his hickies had begun to fade, but after several cups of coffee and a hot shower, he was prepared to face school. His mother had coddled over him a little before running off to work, giving him a note to skip gym class and an excuse note for Saturday's absence. Because Naruto came to school _just_ on time every single day, while Sasuke arrived half an hour early, that short space of time was all of the alone-time he got anymore, and he cherished it for what it was. Every morning, he went to the library, took out his homework, and pretended to check it. Every morning, Suigetsu, Karin, and Juugo would join him, and despite being next to silent, it was one of the few bonding moments they ever _really_ had. And so this morning was generally like no other, save for the expected "Sasuke-kun, why didn't you come on Saturday?"

To which Sasuke replied, "Accident."

And that was the end of it.

But the drowsy thirty minutes flew by, and Sasuke left for his Japanese class, taking his seat as he always did and putting his chin in his palms. He was tired, _very_ tired, and he didn't quite have the patience for anything loud this early, and it was much to his gratitude that when Naruto came in, he looked worse than Sasuke felt. The blonde hobbled to his seat, crashing headlong into an empty desk and blue eyes opening in a half-startled fashion before crawling to where he belonged, immediately putting his head on his desk and his hands on Sasuke's mid-back. Sakura blinked, nudging his foot "Oi, what's with you?"

"Got laid."

Sasuke snorted a little, putting his reading glasses on and opening his textbook.

"…huh."

Naruto just made an affirmative noise before sinking into what was likely a very _deep_ sleep, because he never jerked awake in the power-nap sort of way, he just snored softly and occasionally groaned something, but never twitched. Classes were slow while Naruto slept, and none of the teachers seemed particularly interested in waking him up. Teachers only really woke up sleeping students if the student slept all the time – take Shikamaru, for example – or if the student never slept much but had what they considered great _potential_. Naruto, who never paid attention in class but never really slept either, fell into neither category, so no one cared. He didn't wake up until it was time for Art class, and he didn't _really_ wake up until it was time for gym. Sasuke sat alone in the bleachers, nose buried in a book, the head coach talking to him as if he were listening. The intern coach had the rest of the class working with basketballs. Naruto was good at basketball, just as he was good enough to make just about any team, and so he spent the most of the class showing off, trying to get Sasuke's attention. But Sasuke was apparently _bent_ on grinding the stick up his ass as far as it would go, because not only did he never look at Naruto, but he spent the whole class _working_.

School ended slowly, just as most Mondays did, Naruto having followed him into the art classroom during lunch (he ground heavily into Sasuke's ass while the Uchiha attempted to develop a photograph in the tiny school darkroom, and when the idiot finally ended up knocking over a tray of chemicals, Sasuke elbowed him so hard in the nose it almost broke and yelled at him to get out.), and touched him much more than usual during the last of his core classes – as if to make up for lost time – before Sasuke finally managed to blurt out an excuse at the end of the day for Naruto to leave him alone and just left. Naruto had looked kind of defeated, but replied to him that it was okay, he had to get a physical anyway.

Sasuke drove home, hands gripping the steering wheel so tight his knuckles went white, speeding for most of the trip and at home within twenty minutes. It wasn't as if he were _particularly_ angry at something, he was just tired. He wanted silence. He wanted very much to be left alone, and that was the small favor he got every time he came home – less he'd done something wrong. The Uchiha mansion was silent as death when he entered, the only thing out of place being the small, crumpled envelope waiting at the bottom of the stairs. Sasuke's stomach lurched deeply. Oh god, it _was_ Monday. His entire posture went from exhausted to severely distressed, crossing to the staircase and picking up the letter, marked heavily with Korean postage and scrawled in awkward lettering:

〒100-8799  
東京都千代田区_一番町 _二丁目1番2号  
うちはサスケ

Careful not to damage it, he slipped it into his pocket, glancing in both directions before ascending up four flights of stairs and dumping his things on his bedroom floor. The letter felt heavy in his pocket, more like something he stole than something that had traveled thousands of miles to get to him specifically, but he took the tiny razorblade he always kept in the drawer of his bedside table and slit open the crease at the top. Inside was a thrice-folded slip of looseleaf, covered in well-practiced Korean lettering, and his eyes swept across it familiarly.

_Sasuke,_

_Nothing important happened this week._

_Happy birthday._

He laughed, in a desperate sort of way, the back of his skull banging hard into the plaster wall, nausea crushing through each of his nerves like a stop-station on a metro line. For one week, he had actually managed to not think about Gaara. Even looking at his pictures – of which his personal darkroom was littered – had he managed to _not_ think about Gaara. Every Monday, Sasuke got a letter from him. It was usually only two or three lines, because Gaara wasn't the talkative type, and neither was he. Every Monday, he'd reply immediately, enclosing 100 yen so Gaara could buy an international postage stamp, and it would take three days to reach Korea. On Thursday, Gaara would receive Sasuke's letter, reply to it, and it would arrive on Monday because there was no post on Sunday. It took exactly one week to hear from Gaara, and exactly one week ago, everything was as it was. He'd come home expecting Gaara's letter, a tiny smile on his lips as he read and replied to it, and then went back to his monotone routine.

He stared at the writing, stomach twisting sickly, putting it down on his desk and sitting on the edge of his bed. Gaara. This was their routine. It had been their routine ever since the first week Sasuke was in Japan, and somehow, he'd forgotten. Because of Naruto. Everything about the letter made him sick because in every way _possible_ had Sasuke done some kind of wrong. He ground his teeth together, rubbing his forehead, putting Gaara's face together in his mind. How they'd even ended up together was… questionable, confusing. They had very little in common, aside from broken families. That, and the gap between them was now a thousand times bigger than it had been when Sasuke left. They had too much of a history, messy and burningly evident, and then there was Naruto. Naruto just… appeared. Too much passion and determination all at once, it was like always having pheromone poisoning. Sasuke rubbed his forehead, taking a sheet of paper from his desk and a book to bare down on. It took only a few lines before he crumpled it up and tossed it in the wastepaper basket. Another attempt, another paper ball. It took four tries before he finally settled with:

_Gaara,_

_Birthday's tomorrow, but I'm sure it will be fine. By the time you get this, it will have probably been fine for six days. Other than that, nothing happened this week. I'll send you photos if they get me more development paper._

They never signed their letters, more out of paranoia than anything else. Sasuke pulled a 100 yen bill from his pocket and quickly addressed an envelope, folding the paper in it – along with the money – and sealing it with scotch tape. It wasn't as if he had problems with little white lies, but. _Everything_ had happened. If he and Gaara were still together – it was never _actually_ established that they weren't together – then Sasuke had spent the past week cheating on him pretty heavily. And if they weren't together, it still felt like they were. Sasuke had been in Japan for a couple of years, but every Monday of every week had he gotten a letter from Gaara. A couple of stamps later, he caught Ms. Choi outside vacuuming the hall's carpet and gave it to her and send out.

He rolled onto his stomach, breathing in the fabric of his pillow. He'd forgotten about his birthday too, for that matter. None of the Uchihas _really_ cared about birthdays or holidays. It wasn't as if Mikoto and Fugaku were ever off, and Itachi never came out of his room. The presents would appear, the special dinner would be served, and there might be cake, but it never really meant anything. Last year, Sasuke had made the request to go to Korea for the weekend, but it had been unanimously denied because he had schoolwork to do. His mother might have felt guilty about it, but his father controlled the home, and thus, what he said went. That was probably the last time since he was little he'd asked for something he _really_ wanted.

Without a word did he go downstairs, to his parent's wine cellar, grabbed a bottle of something expensive from France, and took it back upstairs with a glass.

--

Sasuke woke up on July 23rd, the day he turned seventeen years old, at 0600 hours as he usually did. His father had already left, but his mother was waiting for him downstairs with a decent breakfast, kindly suggesting to him that he could stay home from school today and do what he wanted. After drinking as much as he did, he blearily nodded to her and sipped on a glass of water to get the bad taste out of his mouth. He wasn't really hungover – he'd been hungover before and his head had hurt a _lot_ worse than this – but he wouldn't mind going back to sleep. Mikoto kissed his forehead, reminding him she loved him and wishing him a happy birthday before heading off to work, and Sasuke ate a few bites of breakfast before heading upstairs to sleep for a few more hours.

He awoke groggily at 10:30, having missed about 60 text messages and four phone calls from Naruto, finally replying to him that no, he wasn't dead, yes, he was fine, and no, he wasn't coming to school. There was a stack of wrapped gifts outside of his bedroom, neatly placed in rows and every note in the tight handwriting of their Korean maid. The sight was painfully typical. Even on Sasuke's birthday was their family completely devoid of legitimate communication, but it wasn't as if he expected otherwise. He pulled the stack inside, climbing back onto his bed and starting to tear into them. There was the usual round of unimaginative but nonetheless necessary photography supplies: development paper, more film, fresh bulbs, a few bottles of top of the line chemicals. There was a small camcorder he would probably never use, as Sasuke wasn't really the type for moving pictures, and there was a bag of fresh tomatoes which he began to snack on as he tore through paper. There were year round passes to all of Japan's major railways, which basically meant he could go anywhere he wanted by train for the rest of the year. And lastly, there was a credit card with a note attached to it saying to buy himself anything else he wanted. Sasuke hadn't really _planned_ on going out, but he should of guessed that's what they'd do. His family weren't particularly imaginative; Itachi and he had barely spoken since Sasuke was thirteen, his mother and father worked nonstop, and the rest of his family were still in Korea, save for Shisui. He thumbed around in the tags for a moment, the bag of tomatoes apparently Itachi's doing with a small note saying "You've been looking thin." in textbook scrawl. Sasuke half considered to stop chewing, but then rolled his eyes and tossed the slip of paper into his wastebasket.

His phone vibrated noisily, more messages from Naruto, which he only patiently answered because Naruto wasn't bugging him about material shit like Suigetsu was. All he seemed interested was over and over, "Are you okay, did you fall down the stairs again, Sasuke come to school, Sasuke I'm coming over, What do you mean I can't, What do you mean you're shopping, Why are you shopping, Why do you need stuff, NO DON'T TURN OFF YOUR PHONE." It was monotonous but at least it sounded like he gave a shit. Sasuke yawned softly, getting out of bed and peeling off his shirt. His bruises were gone, all of them, and so now that it was safe to wear short sleeves again, he gratefully did. Summer was hell in long sleeved turtlenecks, and it made him look suspicious. A pair of pants and decent shoes later, he grabbed his wallet, phone, and car keys and left the house, not bothering to tell anyone he was leaving because there was no one to tell. Shisui's car was in the driveway, but he hadn't seen Itachi all morning, so it didn't matter much despite that. Ms. Choi really didn't care what he did, Sasuke never blamed her for anything so she never ratted him out.

Sasuke started the ignition of his car, a 2008 sport's car model that did _nothing_ good for the environment but certainly attracted enough attention, pulling out of the driveway and starting his way to Shibuya, generally his favorite part of Tokyo, and the only decent place to go to buy yourself birthday presents because your family doesn't know you well enough to buy them for you. At his first red light, his phone vibrated in his lap again, and Naruto was telling him he had just gotten off the Chuo line. Sasuke rolled his eyes angrily, calling him and balancing the phone between his ear and his shoulder.

"HEARTBREAK~" Naruto sounded utterly delighted.

"I told you to stay in class."

"I got lonely~" He didn't sound lonely.

"Go back to school."

"I can't." Dramatic sigh. "See, 'cuz. The fist doesn't know I ran away, and by the time I go back, school'll be over."

"No it won't."

"YEAH WELL YOU DON'T HAVE TO CALL ME OUT ON IT."

Sasuke cringed. "Quit yelling. I'm not at home, anyway."

"Where are you?"

"On my way to Shibuya."

"What are you doing there?"

"The exact same thing I told you in my text."

"What, shopping, _really_?"

"Yes, _really_."

"What are you gonna buy?"

"Whatever I want, look, stop talking, I'm trying to drive."

"Nooo, _Sasuke_, come get me."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because I'm stranded here and I don't know how to get home." That was a lie, but Sasuke didn't know that.

"You got home before."

"I don't know how anymore. The trains run differently this time of day."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, grinding his teeth loud enough for the blonde to hear it on the other end. "Fine, whatever. Be waiting outside."

About ten minutes later – Sasuke was very good at weaving through Japanese traffic – he pulled up to the station, honking his horn loudly at Naruto, who was so obviously skipping it made his head hurt. When you left school early, you were supposed to _change out of your uniform_, because people _would_ and _will_ report you over it, but Sasuke didn't bother mentioning any of it as Naruto climbed into his passenger seat. "Man, heartbreak, you have got a _bangin_' ride."

"Yeah, thanks."

Naruto grinned ear to ear, catching him by the neck and kissing him firmly, which Sasuke shrugged out of after a few seconds, hitting the accelerator a bit hard so the blonde flew back hard. Sasuke was _determined_ to not let him know it was his birthday, because that would just give him more ridiculous ammunition to treat him like a new doll he had to buy pretty clothes for, pelting out excuses like "I had to go to the dentist this morning." And "Mom said I should just stay home anyway, since school was half over and I wouldn't get credit for my attendance even if I showed up." The excuses were valid enough to sate Naruto, but at the same time he seemed disgusted with the idea that he'd not been in class for him to touch, and thus touched him _quite_ inappropriately to make up for lost time – just as he'd done yesterday – but instead of hitting him did Sasuke brake violently or make sudden lane-changes. The blonde was horribly undeterred, even though at one point he'd smashed his skull into the window so hard that the CD Sasuke had playing skipped, but to his mild entertainment did the idiot never think to put on his seatbelt.

Sasuke pulled into a public parking spot in the heart of Shibuya, parking and locking the car once his company had shakily gotten out, looking a little sick from the reckless driving Sasuke'd put him through. However, when Naruto pulled out of his daze, he practically _sparkled_ with interest, twisting in circles as if trying to stare at everything. It occurred to Sasuke that Naruto probably hadn't seen much of Japan, save for Chiyoda and the beach they'd gone to, and thus Shibuya would be utterly fascinating to him. It was the shopping capitol of Tokyo, if not all of Japan, and to Sasuke, had the most interesting things. Naruto's eyes were practically bugging as a woman of about twenty walked passed them, holding a handful of pink shopping bags, dressed head to toe in the kind of clothing you saw on antique Victorian dolls. "Lolita." He muttered, lowly. "You see it in Harajuku and Daikanyama."

Naruto looked kind of speechless. "Why."

Sasuke shrugged. "You just do."

The first hour of their visit was generally Sasuke buying himself the things he wanted. His first stop was Shibuya's famous Tower Records, where Sasuke thumbed through a few floors worth of music – inevitably buying a stack of 30 CDs – which Naruto spent the time half amazed that a record store of nine floors had existed so close to him and he didn't know about it, and half disgusted that the imported CDs from America and the UK were actually cheaper than most of the Japanese ones. If he'd known how much those 30 CDs would have cost in US money, he would have bugged Sasuke to buy him stuff, but he didn't know, and thus they didn't. The music – which Naruto thumbed through as he walked – was all stuff he'd never heard of, due to cultural ignorance more than anything else. Sasuke was decent enough about answering any of his questions, of which there were all too many. ("Sasuke, what's that place?"

"A depato."

"What's that?"

"Sort of like a mall, only it goes up and has more of a focus."

"Can we go inside?"

"No."

"Whyyyyy?"

"Because the focus of that store is women's clothing, of which I desire none.") And then there were the more lewd things they ran into, such as: ("Sasuke, what's that?"

"A love hotel."

"A love hotel? CAN WE-"

"Absolutely not.") Naruto was _more_ than fascinated with just about everything he came into contact with. When they passed a Pachinko parlor, Naruto made him explain every single aspect of the game, despite the fact that neither of them were old enough for them. ("Pachinko is the way Japan makes gambling legal."

"GAMBLING'S ILLEGAL IN JAPAN?"

"… yes, Naruto. Gambling is illegal in Japan."

"So how does Pachinko work?"

"It's like pinball. You play for the little metal balls, which you can trade with the manager for prizes or little slips of paper. You take those pieces of paper to the building next door and trade it for money.")

Sasuke then dragged him into Book First, a huge bookstore where Naruto discovered he was getting very itchy and bored with just _talking_ to Sasuke, and decided it was a more than decent time to touch him in the art section, where Sasuke was admiring a book done by an urban decay photographer. He put up with it for a few minutes until Naruto started bumping a little too hard into his ass and Sasuke punched him so hard in the face he stumbled backwards into a shelf and knocked over half the books set up neatly within it. The manager _wasn't_ particularly pleased about it, but when he saw how much Sasuke had in his shopping basket, he didn't kick them out of the store and even had an employee or two help a very disgruntled Naruto reshelf the bookcase.

Neither of them were in a particularly decent mood when they left, but Naruto shook it off when Sasuke gave him five hundred yen for a hot bowl of ramen. Sasuke _himself_ didn't eat anything, to which Naruto rudely accused him of being anorexic and commented on how skinny he was, to which Sasuke retorted that he didn't need the MSG to clog his already destroyed arteries from the sheer amount of crap food circulating in the industry. Naruto just asked if he could have another bowl. After lunch, Naruto wanted to see all of the cool stuff, which basically meant all of the tourist stuff he should have seen within his first three days of living in Japan. First had been Yoyogi Park, which Naruto had wanted to see because people were breakdancing and playing Ultimate Frisbee there, and while Sasuke didn't necessarily object to going, he told the blonde they wouldn't be able to stay long if they were to see the other things, as Yoyogi park was _massive_, though beautiful. Naruto was more interested, however, in the types of people there than the park itself. Aside from the array of pretty girls dressed in Lolita, there were plenty of people dressed in visual-kei (an over the top style of dress associated with rock bands who were usually not very good but were aesthetically pleasing to look at), and there were people dressed up in costumes to look like members of their favorite visual-kei artists, and there were street musicians, and tea parties, and gyarus (Japanese girls who tried to look like Californian valley-girls with dark artificial tans and bleach blonde hair, very rarely done well and usually quite horrifying to look at), and just about anything one could hope to look at, concentrated in one place. Naruto, typically, had _plenty_ of questions, which Sasuke patiently answered because as long as Naruto was asking him about the surroundings, he wasn't touching him vastly inappropriately. He took a few photos before dragging Naruto away, telling him with irritation in his voice they had other places to be.

The next two stops were famed statues: one of the dog Hachiko, who was a symbol of loyalty. The dog was owned by a Professor Ueno, and saw him off and greeted him home at Shibuya station every day. One day, the professor had a stroke at the university and never came back, but Hachiko waited for him. He waited for him every day for ten years, precisely at the time the train he would have normally came home on arrived. When Sasuke finished telling Naruto this story, the blonde's eyes were half sparkling. The second statue didn't have such a story, and thus Naruto was less impressed with it, but he was impressed with the massive Shibuya crosswalk not far from it. So as to conserve time, the next stop had to be driven, first up the avenue of Omotesando, where Naruto ogled all of the huge buildings with strange architecture, and begged them to stop as they drove past Japan's famous Kiddy Land store. "What the hell do you want from there, you're 16."

"But _Sasukeeee_."

"I said no, we're going somewhere else."

"Can we go in on the way _back_."

Sasuke just turned up his music, which Naruto took as a disgruntled approval.

Their destination, to Naruto, was apparently a decrepit shrine, and upon voicing this did he earn himself a nice elbow to the solar plexus. "This." Sasuke said, through gritted teeth. "Is Meiji shrine."

Sasuke would have gone on, but went silent when he saw the beginnings of a Shinto wedding procession emerging from the shrine. Naruto went strangely quiet as he watched it, struck by its beauty, while Sasuke quietly crossed to the main yard to write his prayer on a slip of paper. He quietly hung it up with all the other visitor's prayers, writing it in Korean less Naruto got unnecessarily nosy, taking him around the shrine when the procession was mostly over. The place was unusually quiet, probably one of the most noiseless places in Tokyo, and easily Sasuke's favorite part of Shibuya. He wasn't… _wildly_ religious, though he was a follower of Shinto, along with 119 million other people in Japan. Naruto seemed interested in everything, though he apparently got the clue to keep his voice down, because all of his questions were asked in a low tone, if not a whisper. They stayed at the shrine for about 45 minutes, generally quiet and content, Naruto getting itchy and starting to touch him again after about thirty minutes, using a trial-and-error approach this time and finally learning that Sasuke would generally let him hold and touch his hand without a lot of complaint.

At 5:30, twenty minutes into Naruto happily darting around the Kiddy Land and excitedly messing around with all of the toys, Sasuke told him it was time to go. Naruto, predictably, complained, but Sasuke told them that he had to be back at six and that was that. Naruto complained further, to which Sasuke threatened to leave him stranded in Shibuya with next to no concept as to how to get home, and the blonde immediately dropped the Fashion Jenny doll he'd been laughing at and followed him out, into Sasuke's car. The ride home was mostly Naruto talking, which Sasuke had gotten used to, and easily tuned out. It wasn't as if Naruto had made particularly bad conversation, it was just that what was talking about were all things he knew about. He'd been in Japan for a long enough time to not be surprised by much of anything, fashion or behavior wise, when it came to Shibuya. It started raining about five minutes into his drive, and ten minutes further the rain was falling in thick sheets and traffic was sickeningly congested.

He pulled out his phone at a never ending red light, speed dialing his mother who was working on dinner at home and finishing the icing on his birthday cake. "Hello, dear?"

"Mother, yes. I might be a little late getting home."

"The rain? Where are you?"

"I'm in Shibuya, but I have to drop off a friend first."

Naruto beamed from the passenger's seat. "A friend?" Mikoto sounded a little too surprised. "Honey, why don't you bring him over for dinner? It's your birthday, after all."

Sasuke coughed loudly so Naruto couldn't hear her calm voice through the speaker of his phone, and it probably worked, as the blonde was still grinning but otherwise oblivious. "I don't think so." He paused, trying to think of an excuse as to _why_, but Mikoto interjected. "Sasuke, that's kind of rude. Bring him over, I'm sure there will be enough dinner for one more."

Well that kind of settled that. He rubbed his forehead. "Does he go to your school? He can stay the night, if he wants-"

Sasuke interjected _fast_. "Actually, he doesn't."

"Oh?" She sounded a bit put off. "How do you know him?"

"Mother, I have to go, the light just turned green. I'll see you soon."

"Ah, alright Sasuke. Drive safe."

Sasuke nodded, though she couldn't hear it over the phone, and hung up. The light had not turned green, and Naruto was looking at him peculiarly. "What?"

He shook his head. "You're apparently eating dinner with us tonight."

Naruto's confused half-grin turned into a full smile. "REALLY?"

Expression livid, Sasuke accelerated hard, barely not hitting the terrified taxi driver in front of him and causing the SUV behind him to honk at him noisily.

By the time Sasuke arrived home, the rain had reduced to a light sprinkle, and he carried his things inside the house, every light on the bottom floor lit up but not a single room on the three visible floors ascending from it with even a lamp showing through the windows. Mikoto was waiting for him, a kind smile on her face, massive Italian dishes set up along the table and six empty plates resting neatly together. "Happy birthday, darling. We waited for you before we started dinner, but the cake will need to cool before anyone eats it." And, taking notice of Naruto "Ah, hello Naruto! It's a pleasure to have you with us for dinner again."

But Naruto just looked like he was trying not to scream. "IT'S YOUR _BIRTHDAY_?" Trying, and failing. Everyone in the room but Sasuke and Itachi flinched. "Yes, Naruto, it is my birthday."

"SINCE _WHEN_."

"Will you please stop yelling."

"Since when."

"Since this morning."

"How old are you."

"Seventeen."

"WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY SO."

"Stop yelling."

"Why-"

"Because I knew you'd react this way."

"But _Sasukeeee_."

Fugaku cleared his throat loudly, causing Sasuke to flinch visibly. His father had apparently joined the dining room, seating himself at the very end of the table, where he always sat between the son he liked and the woman he married. Sasuke gave him an apologetic look, if not very uncomfortable, and though Naruto was a bit thick, he noticed. When they sat down (Fugaku next to Itachi next to Shisui next to Naruto next to Sasuke next to Mikoto next to Fugaku again), there was a tense silence before the eldest of them asked "Why are you late, Sasuke?"

Nobody had touched their food yet. "The rain caused heavy traffic."

"You should have planned for that. They predicted rain on the news this morning." His tone was so critical that even Naruto noticed, who usually couldn't understand the difference of tone in Japanese because he could _barely_ get by with regular Japanese.

Sasuke's uncomfortable expression furthered, and Itachi's hands were clenched hard enough to break his knuckles under the table. "I missed the news this morning." Sasuke said, finally. "It won't happen again, Father."

Mikoto attempted to lighten the mood by telling everyone to dig in, but things didn't really change much for a few minutes. Naruto rubbed his hand consolingly under the table while Sasuke tried to eat with his left hand. Shisui, seeming not too affected by Fugaku and thus a little frustrated by the awkward silence, finally asked "What did you do in Shibuya today, Sasuke?" He didn't actually look as if he cared too much – not in a rude way but the only things a person could really do in Shibuya were shop, go to the Meiji shrine, or go to a love hotel – but Sasuke answered with an amount of relief at the change of subject "-Went to the record and book stores. Showed Naruto the sites. Visited the shrine."

Mikoto smiled warmly, also relieved at the change of subject. "A visit to the shrine sounds nice. Perhaps we should all do that when we get the chance."

There was a murmur of approval, but at the same time, everyone knew there wouldn't be much of a chance. It was very rare that Mikoto or Fugaku had a day off, let alone had a day off at the same time, and Fugaku thought it blasphemous to request off for any day of the week. They were quiet until finally, Sasuke's father said he had to work on a report that was due the next morning and that he should probably go work. He wished his son a happy birthday, only after a reproachful look from his wife, and left otherwise without a word. The mood lightened considerably after that, and Naruto started babbling on about the things they saw today, Sasuke's family either significantly more interested than he'd been or significantly better at acting like they were interested than he was. Naruto ate his way through three plates of heavy pasta and almost an entire baguette before the cake was brought out (apparently he didn't know that Japanese etiquette involved leaving a little bit of food on one's plate to signify they're finished, while cleaning the plate meant that they wanted more), to which Naruto insisted singing the birthday song, something that hadn't been done for Sasuke since he was quite little. However, Naruto didn't know how to sing the Japanese version of it, so he sang happily in English and only stopping to eat three or four slices of cake. Sasuke, himself, ate maybe a bite or two off of one slice before telling Mikoto he'd eaten too much at dinner (half of one plate) and that he was full. This was apparently normal as no one argued with him, only watching in amazement as Naruto ate his way continually closer to serious indigestion.

Dinner ended around 8PM, where Naruto said goodbye to everyone and had Sasuke show him out. And once the door was closed, planted a very firm kiss on Sasuke's lips, heart skipping several beats as he registered something that _might_ of happened, it was so miniscule. Sasuke _might_ have kissed him back. The pressure was as faint as a watercolor paintbrush, but it _could_ have happened. Of course, Sasuke may have just stumbled forward just a tad, but he also _might_ have kissed Naruto back. And Naruto decided that Sasuke definitely had, and that there was no other explanation, so he practically_ skipped_ home to his parents, who were waiting for him at home and interested to know why he'd ditched school. Sasuke slipped back inside, wiping the sugar off his mouth, collecting the bags of CDs and books from the table and meeting Itachi's expressionless stare.

"Not a word."

"Is there ever?"

--

Hey guys D: I was under the influence of both heavy writer's block and heavy stress this week, so sorry this came a bit late. I had to move homes, and moving is never easy. But listening to the song "While We Were Dreaming" by The Pink Mountaintops finally managed to give me inspiration to write. I know this whole chapter is kind of poorly done, and I'm sorry for that, I hope when my family gets settled I won't be darting all over the place all of the time. Despite being poorly done though, I managed to write 6k! AND OMG, I HAVE MORE THAN 100 REVIEWS NOW :D That's so exciting, homg.

Please keep reviewing! I need it to write =A=;


	8. A Pillow of Winds

**AUTHOR'S NOTE**: A reviewer was somewhat confused about the verse here, so I thought I'd clarify; this is **NOT set in the 1960's**. If it were in the 1960's, everything happening in this story would essentially be impossible, for a variety of reasons that basically can be shortened to: Japan hating westerners and Korean War. This story is set in **modern times**, with Naruto's parents as aged hippies, meaning they grew up during the 1960's and were a product of that culture. Most "aging hippies" retain an amount of that culture because it was such an integral part of who they were, Naruto's parents moreso than most, and as a result, Naruto absorbed a LOT of it.

_**  
Brain Damage**__  
Chapter Eight_

Sasuke spent the better part of his day off running. Despite having a fairly lithe figure, he was relatively athletic, and - for a person who'd spent most of his life in countries with no laws against smoking in public areas or restaurants - had good respiration. Running was relaxing, even in the July heat, because at a certain point, you couldn't think anymore. Building coherent thoughts took more oxygen than you were taking in, took more calories than you had consumed versus the ones that were rapidly burning away. Running was relaxing because it forced him to stop thinking, a generally perpetual state for someone like him, and he spent a good five hours of Sunday running around Yoyogi park. Not consecutively; he took breaks to hydrate and eat, but it was a decent place to be. Since it was the only day a week students had off, there were plenty around, playing live music, showing off their costumes (why, exactly, students would put clothes like _that_ on in this humidity, he could never understand), practicing martial arts, having dance competitions. It reminded him a bit of living in Seoul, which had admittedly been several years ago, but certain moments of his time there were more vivid than others.

When he returned to class the following day, the marks Naruto had left on his throat were _mostly_ gone, but he buttoned his uniform up all the way just to make sure. The school was attempting some kind of event that would be nondenominational enough for most of the students to want to come and not offend any of the tuition-paying parents that made the school's existence _possible_, but so far, they were out of luck. They'd sent out forms during Homeroom for the students to fill out, what three extracurricular activities they'd like to do during the Academic year, and the results were varied. Western students typically wanted school dances, sporting events, and field trips. Eastern students typically wanted "no uniform" days, karaoke contests, and school plays. Then, there was the percentage of the school who wrote bullshit answers (Naruto's, for example, said simply "Orgy", "Bigger orgy", "ANCIENT ROMAN SIZED ORGY OMIGOD"), and the percentage that requested things that simply wasn't going to happen (Shikamaru's, for example, had only two words: "No finals"). So, the task had been given to the student council to figure out what the hell they were going to do and start figuring out how to do it.

When the council began their debate, the first, and most obvious suggestion, was to just count whichever were most popular with the school demographics and see if they could pull off doing one of each. This was reasonable, until the statistics came back, which essentially read like bad stereotypes, and ignored the minorities _among_ the minorities. Basically, it was counter-productive as hell. Then came a suggestion to take the opposite approach; international schools existed with a curriculum of immersion into the Japanese mindset, with classes such as "Japanese sociology", "Japanese art since 1800", and even classes on how to _bow_ correctly, and since that was the point of the school, they should work with events that were inherently Japanese. Although this, too, would work in theory, the events (with the exception of a possible class trip) were supposed to be non-credit and extracurricular. If they focused too much on Japanese culture, they should be contracted for credit, which would be hell to try and swing with the administrators.

Sasuke, who was the class president for his year, was immediately contracted to come up with something based on what the freshmen would _want_ to do, despite the fact that he - generally speaking - already knew. The population of new students from Western countries (especially America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Southern Europe) had been on the rise since the 1980's, and spiked dramatically in the last twenty years; his class of only 100 students were at the _least_ 60% white students, probably more, but he agreed to try and come up with something original and, more importantly, _cheap_. Tuition was expensive in Japan, and, unlike in other countries that when a student attended a private school, it meant their parents were probably rich, most of the students here were quite the opposite. Sasuke knew that. Personally, he thought that one class trip per semester would be fine. He really _couldn't_ remember why he'd decided to run for the position.

The meeting ran longer than he'd expected, and so he ended up late to his first period, not as though it really mattered. No matter what country you were in, not even one that revered teachers as much as the Japanese did, put a substitute in a classroom and nothing really mattered anymore. There was an assignment on the board, some reading to do that the pervert wasn't going to check anyway, and a constant hum of exhausted chatter buzzed through the room, earbuds tucked neatly into half the room's appropriate ears and a cellphone in most hands. He took his seat, not bothering to make his presence known since the temp had her head down on the desk, meeting Naruto's exhuberant "G'mornin', princess~ " with his middle finger, rubbing his forehead.

He pushed aside any detailed thoughts about the stupid council project and took out a sheet of paper and a pen. When he ran, he didn't think. When he sat around and did nothing, he thought far too much, which usually led to streams of consciousness that were far too much to be considering so early in the daytime. He felt Naruto's hands on his back, where they often would sit for an entire period, no matter how many times he shrugged or twisted about, ignoring them for the moment until he felt them ring around his chest. Naruto was groping him. Like a fucking. _Girl_. "Get off of me."

"That's not what you said last ni~i~ight~"

"That's _exactly_ what I said last night, you-" Sasuke struggled for the word. "You _dobe_."

"... what does that even mean."

"Get a dictionary." Sasuke's elbow flew at him out of nowhere, hitting him directly in the nose and back at his side where it belonged in the same second, a smirk settling on his face as Naruto reeled back and howled, emitting a stream of English curses that only half the class understood and waking the teacher up with a start. He returned to his sheet of paper, neatly writing "TO-DO" on the top margin and a few consecutive numbers in the lines beneath.

1. Come up with something for the Student Council.

He paused, sighed, and scratched out what he'd written at the margin and his first line, replacing it with IDEAS FOR THE STUDENT COUNCIL

1. Culturally relevant field trip for credit. (Examples: Hiroshima or Nagasaki sites, Mt. Fuji, Yakushima Island, Shirakami-Sanchi, Himeji)  
2. Culturally irrelevant field trip not for credit. (Examples: Theme parks, onsen hot springs)  
3. Culture Day in school for credit. Similar to club day, students set up booths with food and information about their respective home countries. If student is from a large country with its own regional cultures (such as the United States of America or Russia) they can set up separate booths for each region.  
4. "School dance" after school not for credit (culturally relevant to Western students and considered integral part of a High School education). **must research more thoroughly?  
5. Establishment of sports teams that compete with other schools (would provide a sense of school unity regardless of ethnicity).

That one just needed to happen anyway. Sasuke wouldn't join an athletic team even if he was paid to, but schools that had "spirit" typically had higher attendance rates, which meant cheaper tuition because expensive resources weren't being wasted. Their school _had_ athletic teams, plenty of them, but they could typically only compete with independent teams, and because they didn't have proper coaches, were usually pretty terrible. The least they deserved was a _baseball_ team that was considered part of the Tokyo region, since baseball was such a popular sport in Japan. He sighed. What else did students want to do? Somebody had mentioned a school play, but they _had_ a drama department. It was just really hard to preform (let alone watch) any of the plays performed at their school because they were all in Japanese, performed by people who typically didn't understand the subtle jokes, typically had _very_ thick accents, and who could be excellent singers in their native tongue, but a fool when it came to understanding the kind of inflections required to sing-speak in the translated musicals.

He sighed, turning around in his seat to find Naruto sitting there, glaring at him and a hand cupped over his nose. Sasuke rolled his eyes. "That didn't even hurt. Look over this for me." He passed him the paper, and the blond's lip jetted out ridiculously, snatching the sheet and glancing at it like he didn't care. Then he paused, and a look of confusion came over his face. "Uh. Well." Sasuke stared, and then it struck him that Sasuke had Level 4 Japanese, wherein Naruto's only barely passed Level 1. "... right, sorry, I'll read it to you." He went over it in awkward, heavily accented English, stumbling through his grammar and leaving out unimportant pieces of sentences (such as 'the', 'a', and 'an'), and never pluralizing anything, and when he was done, Naruto looked like he was about to explode with laughter.

Sasuke glared.

"At least I can _read it_."

"You're Japanese!"

"I'm _Korean_, you _idiot_."

"Same thing!"

"No it's- God, whatever, forget you."

"Sas_ukeeeee_." (Talk about inflection.)

"What."

"I liked 'em all, what the hell's it for?"

"I'm supposed to come up with something fun and sort of cheap for the Freshmen to do this semester."

Naruto paused, looking somewhat thoughtful and going over what Sasuke had said. "So whaddabout a talent show or something?" The brunette shook his head. "We already have those. Plus, that wouldn't include everyone." "What about a field day?" "We have those too. Along with every other school in the country. It's called Sports Day." Naruto paused, the ideas that had immediately come to his mind both having been shot down and the demand for higher level thinking put a glazed look on his face. "... uhhhhh. What about." But he trailed, obviously trying to come up with something new that would be _just_ what Sasuke wanted, and somehow that would prompt him to want to get in bed with him, and the Uchiha snorted, turning back around in his seat and drawing lazily on the looseleaf. He wasn't particularly _good_ at drawing, not that it actually mattered since he had absolutely _no_ intentions of going to an art school after he graduated, but he did take descent pictures. He saw ugliness in ways most people couldn't, and captured it well, making him the only male photography student and the _only_ photography student who didn't take pictures of pretty things. Pretty colors, pretty portraits, pretty flowers. Taking ugly things and making them pretty.

"... I think we should do one'a the field trip things."

He blinked, having zoned out entirely and the little doodle on the page having trailed to a nonsense line. He turned back around. "'Cuz I heard that in Japan, when you do field trips, you go with your class and it's overnight and stuff. Pretty much always." Sasuke nodded. That was... essentially correct. "That seems really cool. You usually don't get to do that kinda stuff in America unless you're in a fancy nerd club." Naruto blinked at Sasuke's expression. "...like. If you're in Math Battles or whatever they called it. All the math battle kids go to the capital of the state and have their math battle. And then the team that wins in that state goes to the national competition and usually loses because their team isn't completely Asians."

"You are _literally_ too stupid to insult."

"You're pretty "

"Go die."

--

The week was relatively low impact, considering they had final exams next week. Naruto had been horrified to learn how late he'd come in the semester (Japanese school terms were divided into threes, the first from April to July, the second from September to December, and the last from January to March), but the horror - and any drive to do his work - vanished completely when he was told that none of his current classes were being contracted for credit. Apparently, he was being forced to go to school six days a week and he wasn't even in the school's computer. On the _bright side_, his parent's weren't paying for nothing; they weren't paying at all. Tsunade was just doing them a favor, letting him in early so he could learn some basic Japanese. Not to mention that he met Sasuke. But, under the looming realization that lugging his books from home to school every day was for a grand total of _nothing_, he simply stopped. He brought his sketchbook, since he actually _liked_ Deidara's class, and his gym clothes so he could watch Sasuke change. But otherwise? His work ethic died.

In their last week of classes before their (pitiful) summer break of only a month, Tsunade's voice came over the intercom to announce the student activities for the second and third terms. The senior class were getting to go some island Naruto had never heard of for a few days in third term, a chorus of 'lucky!'s echoing from the students who _did_ know what she was talking about, and a party or something during second. He hadn't been listening too closely. The.. middleclassmen? (Naruto had idea what to call them because apparently, somewhere between Freshman and Senior, there was something that was neither a sophomore or a junior because you only went to High School for three years. Japan was really going on a limb to get as MOTHERFUCKING CONFUSING as humanly possible) were having a version of Sports Day with Winter Sports during second term and a day trip to Tokyo Bay during third term, and the freshmen were going to a Hot Springs resort during second term and camping in the mountains during third. To Naruto, the idea of 100 fifteen and sixteen year olds simultaneously trying to do _anything_ together than involved small tents at cold, high altitudes seemed like just _begging_ for a few teen pregnancies, but apparently, trips this nice were pretty hot shit. Sasuke smiled, very, _very_ small to the point where you really couldn't see it as he was swathed with attention, before returning to a mode Naruto was really getting sick of.

Study mode.

He didn't even get why Sasuke was bothering, he was the top of the class anyway. He already _knew_ all the shit. Since the week was being spent in review, Naruto didn't really need to be there, but he kept showing up to feel up a progressively more stoic Sasuke. In his academic classes, he was getting the condensed versions of an entire semester's worth of work. He wrote the answers in the review packets he was given when he remembered, thinking he might keep them if he had to repeat the class somewhere along the line, but usually, he just zoned or slept. In art, everyone was preparing their exhibitions for their concentration work. Sasuke was spending most of his time _locked_ in the darkroom, opening it only for other photo students but not wasting much time on Naruto's behalf, and during lunch, the nerd had his head shoved in a book, or reading over notes.

"Blegh," Naruto had said over a lunch that Hinata had made for him (-yanno, she made lunch for him every day, now that he thought of it. She was really helpful!), poking Sasuke in the temple with his chopsticks. "Your face is gonna wrinkle by the time you're 20 if you keep doing all that."

Sasuke looked up, brushing his bangs out of his face and pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his noise. "All of what?"

"Studying."

"Then I guess you'll be young forever."

It took him a whole hour and a half to figure out that was an insult.

On finals day, Naruto didn't bother showing up. He knew Sasuke would be so goddamn high strung that if you said a _word_ to him, he'd probably go fucking insane and stab him in the throat with his stupid note taking pen. Yeah, Sasuke was so anal (ha. Anal.) about keeping everything in order than he used the same pen for all of his notes. And when the pen ran out of ink, he would buy another one just like it. Fucking neatfreak. He slept late into the Friday afternoon, woke up and took his time getting rid of his morning erection (he now had an impressive collection of pictures of Sasuke changing in the locker room stored on his phone), ate a few bowls of cereal until he felt kind of sick from eating weird Japanese milk, and watched a few hours of Japanese TV with his mom. Neither of them really understood what the hell was going on most of the time, but that made it all the more entertaining because they talked for the people on the screen.

He didn't remember his phone again until around 5PM (it was usually something he _bothered_ Sasuke with, but was rarely bothered with himself; he could never remember his number when someone asked for it, and when people called him, they talked too fucking fast for him to understand anyway), blinking at the screen which stated he had three new messages.

From: sasUKE  
Received: Fri, 07.30 10:35AM

Where are you?

From: sasUKE  
Received: Fri, 07.30 11:20AM

Can you come for art?

From: sasUKE  
Received: Fri, 07.30 1:50PM

Whatever, nevermind.

Naruto felt his heart sink, checking his watch. "Goddamn, the school wouldn't even be open for the cram students this late." He grabbed his wallet and his phone, darting out the front door before turning on his heel, immediately darting back in. "MOM, I'M LEAVING. DON'T LEAVE THE STOVE ON AFTER YOUR PIZZA FINISHES COOKING." He heard a noise that sounded like acknowledgement and he bounded out the door in a full run, trying to think of what he was supposed to do. If he actually _called_ Sasuke and told him he was coming, he'd just get in his car and drive off. He was _insanely_ passive aggressive, and 'Whatever, nevermind.' basically meant 'You are never touching me again, burn in hell.' Or whatever that translated to in Japanese.

He slid down the rail into the train station, his understanding of how to get Sasuke's place from almost any given point pretty much down pat. If he were a rational person, somewhere between diving through all of these people, he'd probably come to the conclusion that this wasn't a huge deal. It wasn't as if he'd made a gross error; in fact, it was his first absence all year. It wasn't as if Sasuke had _asked_ him to come on finals day, and it wasn't as if Sasuke _didn't_ know he was exempt from them. But Naruto was _highly_ irrational and completely lovesick. And so the three messages were the equivalent of something much bigger than it probably was, darting onto the appropriate train that was packed to the brim of the workforce that were on their way home. He couldn't sit, nor could he pace, making him feel several times as edgy as he should be until he got to switch platforms to take him to Sasuke's area of town, where edginess began to mix with that heavy feeling when you realize you're doing something really dumb right in the middle of doing it.

Was he just going to walk up, unannounced, over what was likely their dinner, and demand to see Sasuke? It would probably piss him off more. And the ropeladder thing _might_ work, but probably not. If he was actually irritated with him, he'd probably just toss down a piece of rope and tell him to hang himself with it. Man, Sasuke was a _bitch_. Especially for a guy, good god. All of his testosterone seemed to be concentrated in his fists, because he _punched_ like a fucking heavyweight _boxer_, but showed no other signs of actually being a guy.

Well, 'cept for that whole. Penis. Thing.

Yeah.

He left the platform and caught the bus that let out near his neighborhood, this one nearly empty because all the rich people that lived here probably drove shiny luxury cars back and forth to work every day. Or something. The busdriver recognized him, probably because he was huge (6'3" in Japan was like. Godzilla sized.), blonde, very loud, very talkative, and - in general - had a lot more presence than most people so he drove him straight to where he always got off, waving at him awkwardly and earning an exuberant "THAN- I mean. DOMO ARIGATOU~" from the blonde as he dashed up the street, counting houses in his head because none of them had the number on the mailbox, and even if they did, Naruto would never remember it unless it was 69.

When he found it (the eighth one on the left), Sasuke's car apparently in the garage because there were others he recognized in the driveway, he paused, gritting his teeth. How to go about this. If he snuck around and tried to find a backdoor, he'd probably set off a burglar alarm. Walking up to the door probably wasn't really an option, though he kept it in mind as a possibility if he couldn't come up with any better ideas. "Lessee," he mumbled to himself, thinking outloud. "Sasuke's on the-what floor? The fourth?" He squinted upwards. No window had any lights on except for the ground floor (this was mildly redeeming, considering all of their cars were environmental clusterfucks), so he couldn't tell just from looking. "Yeah, it was probably the fourth floor." He glanced around, looking around for one of those rose things that guys always climbed up in movies, the white things that roses and ivy grew on. ".. but what if it's not. And what if the window's locked. OR WORSE OMIGOD, what if it's Itachi's room and he and his weird girlyman cousin are having kinky incestuous gay sex. They seem like that time. GOD I hate my life."

He loitered for a moment, before uttering a quiet "fuck it, whatever" and rounding to the back of the house. The backyard was small (even rich people can't have grass in big cities), and there was a sliding glass door that didn't _appear_ to be wedged closed. He peered inside, exhaling a sharp breath and not seeing any movement. It sort of looked like a lower level basement, which made sense since their house was built on a bit of a slope, and he slipped inside, bracing for the loud security alarm or the attack dogs. Or at least the sour looking maid. But none of them ever came, and he maneuvered quietly, enough light from the curtainless doors to lead him to the elevator. Once again bringing up the dilemma, WHICH FUCKING FLOOR WAS SASUKE'S. He had to just take his chances with the fourth one, since he'd gotten this far, so he pressed the UP button and waited behind a large bookcase, just in case the door opened and someone was already in there, but when they did open, there was no one there, and his heart thudded with adrenaline. Sure, he'd done weirder shit than this, shit that was a _lot_ more illegal than this, but usually, when he was in love with someone, they _let him in_. So this had all the regular pleasures of a breaking and entering accompanied with the possibility of getting laid.

And getting laid?

Always relevant to Naruto's interests.

The elevator went up the five floors slowly, paranoia hitting him so bad he was nearly shaking, and when the doors opened, he exhaled a sigh of desperate relief. Stuff he recognized. He was a visual learner, not an auditory learner, though he was relatively sure that - after all of this - he wouldn't forget what fucking floor Sasuke lived on again. His door was cracked, but from what he could tell, he wasn't inside, and he didn't hear the shower running. Probably still eating, whatever. Naruto could wait. Of course, everything would inevitably be a whole lot fucking _funnier_ if he hid instead of just hanging around in the open. Ignoring the whole maid-on-the-prowl thing, it'd be fucking hysterical if Sasuke came in to do whatever... Sasuke did when Naruto wasn't around and he jumped out all 'SURPRISE, PRINCESS. I'M HERE TO SCREW~ YOU~ ' He let out a snort, looking for somewhere he could wait and not be too uncomfortable, settling on the walk in closet and sitting down on the floor, leaving it cracked so he would know when Sasuke showed.

Unfortunately, to say the very least, this ended up taking a _lot_ longer than he'd expected, and Naruto ended up bored to the point where he grabbed Sasuke's iPod and DS from his desk to keep himself busy. Surprise!waits were the most boring. Although he really wanted to look around and rifle through Sasuke's shit, he knew the second he did, the guy would materialize out of a stargate or something. He'd been wrapped up in listening to Sasuke's (crap) music and trying to capture a Gyarados (which, by the way, was fucking difficult with the whole game in Japanese) in a version of Pokemon that Sasuke had apparently saved since he was six when he remembered he was actually there for a _reason, _glancing up and jumping to find Sasuke had returned, god _knows_ how long ago. The lights were still out, and even though he'd been distracted, he was fairly sure they'd never been turned on in the first place, and he quickly turned off the game and yanked the headphones out of his ears, trying to discern whether or not he was asleep.

He didn't _look_ asleep.

He was mostly sitting up, moving around a little but he didn't see the light from a cellphone, so he wasn't texting. Naruto squinted, and then all of the blood that made his cheeks pink, that circulated through his wrists to make playing handheld games possible, that circulated through his legs to make walking possible; all of it went straight to his groin, stomach dropping with an arousal so powerful he gasped, mouth gaping and eyes completely disbelieving.

Sasuke was fucking touching himself.

Right there.

The Uchiha was ridiculously quiet, and it was too dark for him to be looking at any porn, but whatever it was, it was apparently doing it for him because his fingers were slick. Naruto was frozen to the spot. His brain was screaming, hollering at him to just pounce him, this was the most ideal moment in the fucking _universe_ to do it and he would probably never get such an opportunity less he started sneaking into Sasuke's room every night, which he did not have the mental capacity to do.

Ohhh, Jesus. Okay. Okay. Calm the fuck down. You have options. You're in a closet. He doesn't know you're there. Scratch that, you don't have options. Unless you jump him, you're stuck in here until he falls asleep. And not that 'I think he might be asleep but he might not be' sleep, real, rapid eye movement sleep. Which could take forever. Probably would. It was only a little after 7PM, and since they didn't have school for a month, he'd probably stay up late. Naruto didn't have the control to wait that long. But if he jumped out now, Sasuke would hate him forever. He seriously would. And it wouldn't be like the art thing, this he would actually deserve. His stomach dropped painfully, dread hitting him maddeningly and so hard that if he was going to last much more than five minutes waiting here, he would have to jerk off. He couldn't take his eyes off of him, hand moving at a progressively faster speed between his legs, and Naruto snarled quietly, forcing his fist into his mouth.

Dead kittens. Broken teeth. Ass zits.

Goddamnit, he needed something even more disgusting, this was not working.

"Ah..."

He'd zoned for a moment (god fucking knows _how_), but at the barely audible noise his eyes snapped back up, and ohgoddamnit. Oh god. DAMN. IT. He had a hand _behind him_ now. And there were only a few things he could _possibly _be doing with it, and with the half-pained look on his face, Naruto could pretty much infer what it was. If he had any chances of _not_ jacking off in Sasuke's closet, they were pretty much gone. "Oh well," he grumbled to himself, less than a whisper and unzipping his jeans. "I've done worse."

--

At two in the morning or so, Sasuke finally got exhausted enough to sleep. Never, _never_ again was he taking caffeine pills. If anything, they'd probably made him do far _worse_ on his finals because he jittery to the point where one of his teachers pulled him aside and asked him, point blank, if he was on something. Sasuke had told him he'd had too much caffeine, and the teacher had believed him, though, in retrospect, he'd probably been acting like a speedfreak. He yawned, pulling off his shirt and crossing the distance of his room to his closet, opening the door to retrieve a pair of pajamas and all the color draining from his face at once.

"..."

Naruto was in his closet.

"..."

Asleep.

"..."

Holding a sock that half-dry with something that was definitely _not_ water.

Sasuke took his desk chair, dragging it across the floor, slammed the closet door as loudly as he possibly could so the fucking voyeur idiot would _wake up_ and jamming the doorknob with the chair. The action was immediately followed with "HOLY SHIT SASUKE, SASUKE, LET ME OUT, OMIGOD I'M SORRY THIS IS _SO_ NOT EVEN WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE, LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT, OMIGOD SASUKE, _SASUKE_, GODDAMNIT SASUKE-"

The Uchiha grabbed his pillow, turned off his desklamp, and headed out the door, shutting it behind him.

He'd sleep in a guest room tonight.

--

Yeah, I know it took forever. ^___^; I'm sorry, guys. This story is still being worked on, I promise. In return, a teeny-tiny bit of smut for you all. And SPEAKING OF SMUT. On my profile page, I put a link to my AFF account, which includes a horrendously long Kyuubi!NarutoxSasuke fic that I wrote yesterday. If any of ya'll would be interested. Please leave some reviews andfhnsdg. I'm serious when I say I need them to write =__=;


	9. It Would Be So Nice

_**Brain Damage**__  
Chapter Nine_

_I am the product of war. Without the expense of others, there would be no I. No ego. No lifeblood, no perception, no consciousness as a bundle of nerves encased with the shell of a skull, nor any muscles or tissues to contain that. Without death, I would not be. Without death, Mother would never have met father through the tumbles and misgivings of the Korean War. Without death, Mother wouldn't have been depressed enough to want a second child to replace her sister. Everything that happens occurs for a reason. It has to. It has to be something that profoundly simple. There's no possible way there couldn't be. Everything has to be intertwined and woven together within space, and we must be swathed with that fabric because if we're not, then all of it's pointless._

_It can't be pointless._

_I'm alive for a reason. Every disgusting person I meet on any given day, every person who seems like human waste contributing to the steady destruction of the planet, they matter. Every one of them. They have to. And at some point, I will find a use for every one of my useless talents. All of the bits and pieces of information I don't believe to be significant, but my brain stores them, regardless. My locker combination from four years ago. The quadratic formula. The Korean translation of a Japanese translation of an English song. Everything, it has to mean something. It all has to come together, perfect and precious like newborn child opening its eyes, or the all-consuming feeling of pleasure when going to a carnival at night and you're drowned in sensory-overload with the sick-sweet smells of the food and the screams of the people on the roller coasters and the camera flashes and the blinking lights and the pure cloying of it all. Despite how stupid it is, how mindless, you smile._

_(Why do I think like this?)_

--

It took Naruto only a few days into his minuscule summer vacation before he deduced that he _hated _Japanese summers. Sasuke had left the morning after his final exams to go on some cruise (the idea of him coming back looking like an overcooked lobster made Naruto feel a _little_ better about getting locked in his closet until he'd managed to break the door down, resulting in half the lights in the house clicking on and that security alarm he'd been so damn worried about finally going off. Why, exactly, the security alarm had been wired to Sasuke's _closet_? He didn't know. Nor had he cared. Exhausted from forcing an immovable object to _move_, and cramped from sitting on the floor for half the night, he'd repelled down the side of the house with Sasuke's rope ladder, but not without first grabbing all the spare cash in the brat's wallet so he'd be able to take a taxi home) - and since he'd left, Naruto'd not received any communication from him at all. He hadn't expected any, but he'd hoped that the Vitamin D and whatever drinking he was doing would put him in a forgiving mood.

Instead, all of Naruto's calls had gone straight to voicemail and all of his texts bounced back.

He was hating his summer. He really was. And Naruto, who _loved_ people and loved beaches and the smell of the ocean and the way girl's skin looked when it was tanning out and the way salt smelled when it crystallized in his hair; Naruto, who loved _all_ of that, and was now currently residing on a mass of land smaller than the US state from which he'd hailed from and _completely_ surrounded by the ocean that he loved? Naruto was in a bad fucking mood. Not _just_ because Sasuke was mad at him because he broke into his house, waited for him in his closet, watched him masturbate, masturbated _while_ watching him masturbate, and fell asleep in said closet after ejaculating into one of his socks five or six different times. It wasn't _just_ that. It was _mostly_ that, but Japan was... humid. It didn't feel like California at all. The air was heavy with moisture and it was impossible to walk around without developing sweat stains almost immediately, something that earned him an immense amount of stares that even _he_, the most fantastic thing in the known universe _thankyouverymuch_, couldn't shrug off.

That, and most of their pot was gone. Pot that was not likely to come back. Drug possession was a much stricter offense in Japan, especially since he was staying there under his parent's Work Visa. None of this dual-citizen bullshit; they were an insular, picky nation about Westerners. Especially westerners that were as tall and blonde and oblivious as him. Pent up and bored, since Sasuke apparently wasn't planning on coming back until a week prior to school's restarting (information he'd flirted out of Karin, who, despite her type apparently being quite similar to Naruto's, was pretty easy to sway) - he'd asked his parents if he could go to Chiba to surf. He only knew as much about the place as the Internet told him, but apparently it had some pretty fucking _fantastic_ waves and it was a decent place to be this time of year.

Of course, there was a problem. Minato and Kushina hadn't flown all the way to Japan to take the luxury of a vacation only a month and a half into working, and they made it abundantly clear to their son that this was the case, Kushina looking entirely irritated that he was making such a fuss because his "manwife wouldn't talk to him" and Minato looking pained at the idea of _not_ letting him go. But the fact was, Naruto was in the most futuristic, interesting city in the world. There was enough to do in Tokyo to keep any sane person busy for at least a year without ever doing the same thing twice. Naruto'd accepted their decision - after an amount of arguing, yelling, fit-throwing, fist-throwing, pouting because he lost, pouting harder because it looked like they really _weren't_ going to give in, and stalking off to his room to brood over it. Of course, unlike Sasuke, Naruto wasn't very good at brooding. Ten minutes of seething later and his stomach whined piteously for something to eat, and the house was too small to go to the kitchen and make a cup of instant ramen without being intercepted by at least _one_ parent.

Yeah.

This summer was sucking some serious cock.

His family had finally settled in, which was nice. The house was old, but he counted his blessings they had a house - a _real_ house - that wasn't completely robbing them blind on rent every month. Tokyo's real estate was highly competitive and typically worked upward, rather than outward, which made the house he currently resided in almost priceless. Not the house _itself_, the damn thing was falling apart; it smelled like rotted wood and probably had enough radon trapped in it to give him lung cancer by 25, all of the bathrooms were built _into_ the floor (something that had scared the living hell out of him when he first moved in), and the walls were painfully thin so that whenever his parents were doing it, Naruto knew.

No, the house was worthless. But the tiny patch of land it occupied could house several hundred people vertically.

Nonetheless, with all its faults and rotting wood and Radon gas, Naruto really did like it. It seemed appropriate. The decor was of a comfortable messiness, like nobody ever actually _cleaned_ but everything - essentially - had somewhere to go. His room was the messiest, despite him actually being home the _least_ of any of his family, but he liked it. The futon, which had cured any of his backaches in the first week but felt like sleeping on a blanket reinforced with linoleum bathroom tile, had stuffed with a thin mattress layer underneath, and he'd managed to buy enough voltage converters so that all of his electronics were running again. Which weren't many. A dinosaur of a computer that was infected almost beyond repair with viruses from downloading too much porn. An alarm clock made to look like a frog (he has this thing about frogs. They were motherfucking cute). A stereo that he used to play CD's - yeah, _CD's_. Naruto would never be too damn broke to not support a musician - and a single lamp he was making a point not to use unless absolutelyfuckingnecessary.

He let out a sigh, picking up his phone and speed-dialing Sasuke's number for the umpteenth time and, once again, going straight to his voicemail. "I didn't answer the phone." That always made Naruto snort, even if he was disappointed for him to have not picked up. The beep, and Naruto always loitered for a few seconds - still used to the landlines where the machine could shout at you from another room - before snapping his cell shut. On the first day he was gone, he'd left a couple dozen apologetic and _extremely_ whiny messages. On the second day, he just started talking to him. Carrying on a very long, one-sided conversation well into the fourth day until he realized eventually Sasuke's voicemail would fill up, and if he had anything that was actually important to tell him, he might not be able to. A concept that was, for whatever reason, more upsetting than him not answering.

He let out an agitated huff.

"This summer sucks."

--

Sasuke was not boiled like a lobster. As a matter of fact, Sasuke was not a lot of things Naruto assumed he was. Sasuke was not, for instance, even out of the country. The "cruise", a rushed excuse he'd given Karin because he didn't have time to explain the entirety of the ordeal between studying, was more of a small island tour. It had the luxury of a cruise, but that was to be expected: Sasuke was wealthy, and wealth meant privilege. But everything was about the size of a ferry, and most days, he didn't even get off of the ship with the rest of its occupants to explore the many tiny, identical islands. Temple this, statue that. Sand here, water in every direction. Sushi for dinner, upset stomach afterwards - probably a purely psychological thing, too, but Sasuke had an irrational fear of dying from gradual element poisoning, and lived in the one developed country in the world where you could die of mercury poisoning and it wouldn't be considered a likely homicide.

No, Sasuke wasn't burned. He'd spent literally the entirety of his first day sleeping, though no one had noticed. His mother and father had been there for the first couple of days before they got called off to some emergency and took a flight back into Tokyo. Itachi was... around. Checked on him occasionally, to make sure he hadn't thrown himself overboard and to make sure he was eating at least twice a day, but primarily left him to his own devices. He had _no_ idea if Shisui'd come, though if he had, it wouldn't be too surprising. Save for the idea of the inherently _strange_ man managing to not catch Sasuke's attention.

Through Day 2, he slept in again until noon and spent the rest of his day hours on his computer, something he realized only in hindsight was a grave waste of time. In the evening, when they'd docked, he'd explored a little bit of the island (Izu-Oshima, which he only remembered because it's where _Ringu_ had been set. And _unlike_ in Ringu, it didn't hold his attention at _all_.) - before getting some dinner and reboarding for another gracious night of rest. Although the beds weren't particularly comfortable (Sasuke was extremely picky about where he slept, in what position he slept, and where he faced), he'd exhausted himself so thoroughly from power-studying the week prior that the sheets felt unusually inviting every night.

On the third day, he'd actually gotten out of bed at a reasonable hour, dressed nicely enough, took a shower and brushed through his hair, only for the air to be so thick with heat and moisture that his efforts went to waste immediately and he started to sweat. A _lot_. There wasn't a person in the universe that _enjoyed_ the feeling of sweating (-well, maybe Suigetsu did. His skin was either so over-moisturized or dry to the point of flaking off at all times that having to work hard enough to _expel_ moisture was probably an interesting experience for him), so he'd promptly returned to the ship and took another shower. Changed again. Brushed his hair out. But instead of going outside to enjoy the islands he was on the expensive cruise for in the _first place_, he'd merely opened the windows to his cabin and began on his summer reading. This was the exemplary behavior that earned him the affections of just about every girl he ran into (and a few of the more unorthodox boys he came across), and generally the disgust of everyone who didn't fit into either of those categories.

But reading was nice. Even if it was a book that was conventionally boring, or plotless, or too slow to maintain interest. Sasuke liked reading. For the same reason he liked running, and writing, and artistic photography. They required either immense amounts of concentration that allowed for no other thoughts, or were physically exerting to the point where he didn't have the calories to think.

On the fifth day, he wrote Gaara an e-mail. They didn't typically use e-mail because his (boyfriend? Not for a while. Not really.)'s Internet access was typically sparse, and even when it wasn't, there was always the threat his account could get accessed by his father. So when Sasuke did send him e-mails, they were always disguised as Spam. He wrote Gaara a _long_ letter, for that matter, progressively more honest until he'd essentially told him every ridiculous detail of his ridiculous life for the past two months before deleting all of it and canceling the message. Got dressed into clothes that breathed (though he didn't have many. Sasuke looked unnatural in warm colors and most clothes that were meant to be loose only came in the hyper-reflective shit Naruto liked to wear), and went with the rest of the group on a hike up one of many previously-volcanic mountains. His bike jersey, sleeveless and the kind of brand-new white that made most people cringe, clung to him ridiculously, but he didn't sweat much. On the way back down the mountain, he found Itachi at one of the more secluded beaches, the kind that didn't attract any tourists because the sand was dark and full of rocks. They met eyes for a moment, but that was the extent of it.

"... jerk."

--

It was astounding that he'd already wasted a whole week of his precious summer without doing _anything_. He hadn't gotten laid once since he got to Japan, though he was fairly sure he could score a girl if he tried, because his attentions had been so raptly focused on stupid Sasuke. He hadn't gotten to surf even _once_, despite being surrounded by the Pacific ocean in every direction. Nor had he been anywhere in a long time that was real nature. Sure, there were those parks Sasuke had showed him, which he'd visited a few times since. But that wasn't real nature. It was pretty, blah blah blah. But it was contained. There were small cities that ran on less electricity than those parks did, for God's sake. It wasn't _real_, and it was driving him crazy. Goddamn, he missed California. He missed San Francisco, he missed the Haight Ashbury where his parents had owned a building there since '65, and they lived, slept, and worked that place until Minato sold out and went corporate.

He missed it so bad. This two story place, painted bright orange with a black spiral on the door, that was the business part of it. What did they sell? Goddamn, a whole lot of everything. Half of it was a restaurant that his dad had managed, since he was the woman of his parent's relationship. And the guy could cook a_ fierce_ veggie-burger, holy crap. The other half was just. Stuff. A lot of it seemed like trinkets and bullshit, but people bought them. The part that _he_ managed was the record corner. Which wasn't really a record corner, it was more like a mostly-records but also a crapload of CD's because they'd had to catch up to the times around '95 because only a small quota of people were still _buying_ records, while a large quota were selling. Buy-Sell-Trade. That was their deal when it came to the record corner. Most of the stuff they had were Psychedelic and Progressive rock stuff, though he'd had a handful of Folk Rock and Singer-Songwriter thrown in there for that crowd. Aside from Bob Dylan, Naruto had never been too big'a fan of Folk. The music wasn't complex at all, while the lyrics were so complex that every time he listened to any given Dylan record, he noticed something new.

When he moved to Japan, he left his record player behind. Along with the store. Minato was supposedly working with some snarky Jap to build some version of their old store here, because there'd been a huge boom in interest in the hippie movement or some shit. Naruto didn't believe it. Not about the store, that was probably happening because his father came home in a decent mood most nights and often smelling strongly of incense, but he didn't believe anyone was really that interested. On his days off from school, when he wore his _real_ clothes; home-made and thoroughly drawn on jeans, typically no shirt, tye-dyed fabric tied around his forehead and the markings on his stomach, his first and favorite of tattoos, seeming even more impossible to ignore, People _stared_. No, not stared. They fucking _gawked_. Even the weird tweenagers he ran across, trying to be goth or cyberpunk or whatever you called those girls that dressed up like Victorian dolls (which, admittedly, he had a slight boner for) - even _they_ gawked.

It was so lame.

He saw their store for the first time after being in Japan for almost two months. Compared to the place in Haight Ashbury, which was an unfair comparison but like hell he cared, Naruto had been forced to move here! - compared to that, it was godawful. Like most stores in Tokyo, it was in a high rise place, on something like the fifth or sixth floor. Meaning you'd only be able to get there if you were trying to get there. The sign wasn't a printed thing, at the least. He recognized his father's calligraphy in LOVERLY SUMMER! followed by some Japanese that probably translated it. At home, their store hadn't even had a name. But to function at all effectively, they came up with one, and apparently weird Engrish was the result. The actual place much more redeeming on the inside; it looked as though his parents had been giving each wall a hand-done Psychedelic paint job while their stock came in. The kitchen wasn't functioning yet, but they were supposed to open in a week or something, and that would be good. Whatever. He knew he was just being pissy because Sasuke wasn't around, but Naruto really didn't care.

The record collection had come in that morning, and on his parent's lunch break (instead of Minato cooking lunch when they were working like he _always_ had), he'd reassembled his corner. Only now, it wasn't in a corner. Each corner was occupied with a dining table because the space was so damn small, so he'd grumpily decided that a bookcase near the windows would do. He had no idea where his parent's income was coming from, though he knew that it could be explained in a rigmarole of bullshit involving a market curve A and a supply curve B. They had a few classic American record players for sale, but they wouldn't work in Japan, purely a collector's item in that regard, so Naruto painted one of them to double its worth. The Japanese record players, the ones that were old but certainly still functioned, were fine enough, but they seemed fake. Nonetheless, since it'd been months since he'd heard the squall of diamond needle against Vinyl, he'd put on a Quicksilver Messenger Service LP while he worked.

It all seemed like bits and pieces of their old lives. The bits and pieces he loved the most, but somehow lost in translation. His mother had found him stretched out on the couch when they returned, mopey like a little emo twelve year old, and had been so disturbed by the sight that she hit him over the back of the head and kicked him out of the store for giving off "bad fucking vibes".

He went into a McDonald's, just for old times sake even though it was an evil corporation that sucked the life out of everything around it, and even ordered some fries. He ate meat sometimes. Lean meat, like chicken and fish, and he liked it. But like hell was he eating chicken from a Japanese McDonald's. He sat down and flipped open his phone, speed-dialing Sasuke for the god-fucking-knows how many'th time, chewing on a fry and practically leaping out of his skin when it rang a second time. That meant the little fag had actually turned his phone on, and since he'd not rehearsed what he was planning on sighing, he found himself having a mini-panic attack and nearly choking to death on the French fry, earning him a few "Gaijin..."'s from all directions.

The ringing broke, followed by a dull, "What."

Naruto held the phone away from his face as he forced himself the swallow and breathe. "... you leave me 80 voicemails and fill my inbox over-capacity with texts and you're not-"

"I'm here, Sasuke, Sasuke_Sasuke_, holy shit, Sasuke, shitshitshit, I miss you so bad."

There was silence on the other line, so Naruto kept going in his stumbling Japanese. "Omigod, please come back, seriously _please _come back, I hate Japan when you're not here and I hate you when you're mad and I don't like hating you because I've been moping around like a whiny little bitch and it's totally killing my _soul_, man, you really don't even know, and I know you're probably enjoying your shiny little cruise with your shiny little parents in the Bahamas or _wherever_ Asians go on giant boats that isn't Pearl Harbor but _please_ come back, omigod Sasuke. I miss you so bad. And I'm _seriously_ sorry about the closet thing. I know I said that like a million times, but I really fucking mean it. I came 'cuz I wanted to see you 'cuz I didn't go to school and you wanted me to go but I didn't see your messages, I wanted to come see you and apologize and stuff, but I didn't want to just go up to the front door so I was like, '_Duh_, take the back', but then I got freaked out about getting caught and torn apart by dogs or that weird Korean lady and was all **JAMES BOND STEALTH TIME** only I'm not good at doing that, so _THEN_ I got this idea that I'd wait in your closet or something for you to come back and jump out and scare you, and _YES_, in retrospect, that wasn't a particularly smart idea, I _GET IT_, but you took forever to come back and I was just really-_really_ bored so I started playing your gameboy and I was trying to catch a Red Gyarados, A RED. _GYARADOS_. THAT SHIT IS _SERIOUS BUSINESS_. And I got all distracted with it and forgot why I was there, and the next time I looked up, you there like.. jerking off and stuff, and I was like omigodomigodwhatdoIdo because I couldn't jump out and I couldn't, like, _rape you_, even though I really wanted to because you're so fucking hot, omigod, you're the hottest _ever_, but I couldn't because I love you Sasuke, Iloveyou_Iloveyou_ so much that it makes me want to _die_, so I just.. stayed put, and I know that that was bad but it was the lesser of two evils, and I swear, I was just waiting for you to go to sleep so I could leave and come back the next morning, I SWEAR. Sasuke, just.. come back."

The silence continued, but he knew Sasuke was there, he could hear him breathing, and he ignored the looks of all the people in the restaurant who were irritated at the gigantic white guy screaming his head off into a phone. "...Sasuke?"

"I'm here."

--

The entire room rattled when the door, still wet with the black paint in the shape of a spiral, kicked open, and a voice bellowed after it, loud and in fluid, furious English: "I'M GOING TO CHIBA AND YOU CANNOT STOP ME. _BELIEVE IT_."

His mother, who was wearing a loose skirt and absolutely _nothing_ else, hadn't known he had come in and slammed her head into the underside of a table, where she'd been tightening up a screw so the thing wouldn't creak, and his father nearly smashed the tip jar he was painting into a thousand pieces.

"I AM GOING TO CHIBA, AND I JUST DON'T EVEN CARE. YOU MADE ME MOVE TO THIS STUPID PLACE WHERE EVERYONE'S ALL 'O~_HO_, BEING A RACIST IS _SO COOL_, LET'S HATE ALL OVER THE GAIJIN BECAUSE HE HAS A BIG PENIS AND IS THIRTY FEET TALL, _O~HO_ LET'S BE STUPID AND DO _JAPANESE STUFF_ LIKE TAKE OUR SHOES OFF AND BOW ALL THE TIME AND BE TOTALLY INSANE ABOUT STUDYING AND TALKING CORRECTLY AND BEING SUPER POLITE AND NEVER ANSWERING ANYTHING _DIRECTLY_, O~HO, LET'S BE CRAZY STUCK UP _BITCHES_ O KUDASAI WA DESU NE KA NAN DE YOROSHIKU ONEGAISHIMASU SORE WA ANO BLAH BLAH BLAH*.' FUCK THIS. FUCK JAPAN. FUCK _HELLO KITTY_ AND _CELL PHONE CHARMS_ AND OHHHH NOOO, THERE GOES TO-KI-YO, GOJIRA! I AM _GOING_ TO CHIBA. I AM GOING TO SURF. AND YOU CAN JUST DEAL."

Kushina was busy letting out a stream of curses and, for the most part, not listening to her son scream as she crawled out from under the table to get a bag of ice, and Minato was just staring. Naruto was a little thrown off by it, but he held his ground. Kushina came out from the freezer, holding a bag of frozen snap peas to her skull and looking seriously irritated. "Stop shouting, bratface. I've got the worst damn headache." Minato snorted, an arm slipping around her waist and pulling her hair apart to inspect the lump developing on the top of her head. No blood, but it was swelling nicely, and he kissed her temple soothingly. "What are you waiting for, kiddo?"

Naruto opened his mouth and closed it again, not having expected the question, before crossing his arms sulkily. "I need some money. To get there."

Kushina's face went bright red like a pufferfish about to expand, the way it always did when she was about to _let him have it_ (which, it should be noted, wasn't a lot. Naruto had a very good relationship with his parents, on pretty much every front, because they'd raised him like an equal) - when Minato cut her off with a sweeping, sweet kiss and sat her down on the couch. Naruto exhaled, rubbing his forehead. "Are you still depressed, Naruto?" His father's voice was more serious than usual, watching him with concern as he held the cold to his wife's head. "No, I'm not depressed. But I gotta go. Like, soon." Minato sighed, giving him a reproachful look. "Where are you going to sleep?"

"If things go good? Cruise ship. If things go in the direction they're _probably_ gonna go? Tent."

"What are you going to eat?"

"INSTANT RAMEN, how could you even ask."

"How are you going to get a board?"

"Rental."

"How long are you going to be there?"

"Depends on whether or not things go the way I want."

Kushina gave him a sour look. "... don't get an STD. I'm still not sure what our new Health Insurance policy covers."

Naruto smiled brilliantly, which only seemed to make her _more_ irritated. Unlike her husband and sun, she didn't have quite the same threshold for pain that they did, though she could punch like nobody's business. Women were fierce. Scratch that, Caucasian women were fierce. Japanese women were not fierce. Japanese women were, in fact, the antithesis of fierce. Minato stood up and moved to the back of the store, digging around for a few minutes before returning with 10,000 yen. A little less than 100 dollars. Or was it a little more? The exchange rate was so jacked up. "1,000 yen should get you to Chiba. Don't forget to pack some clothes, don't forget to eat, and give me back whatever's left over. We don't get paid for another week." He kissed his forehead, and so did Kushina, despite having a look on her face like a cat tossed into a swimming pool, and a moment or so later, he was running home. Plowing through all of the people on the street and not even bothering with a train, he could make it faster on foot with thus much adrenaline. He could make it.

He flew through the Shibuya crosswalk, one of the first places he'd discovered in Japan and one of his favorite, an area of street with five intersecting crosswalks, often used as a free speech zone and an area to hand out flyers, when he heard a voice yell his name and he nearly fell over trying to stop. Naruto wheeled around, trying to identify its source, and blinked when he found it. Shikamaru? He didn't know him that well. Nobody really did, the guy was never _awake_. And he was _here_, handing out cards? Naruto checked his watch before jogging over to him. He was almost home, he could spare five minutes. "Hey man, what's up?"

"You want one of these, right? Since you didn't get it on the last day?"

Naruto blinked and took the postcard. It was all in complex Kanji, but he picked up certain words. Student. He could read that. Then something else, damn, he knew that character. What the fuck did that one mean. "You're in it. Consider it a victory?" He blinked, looking up. "What do you mean 'in it'?" The brunette blinked, obviously having not expected the question, and flashed him the other side of one of the cards still in his hand. Naruto stared, and distantly, he could hear Shikamaru continuing to talk. Something about failing and summer school and Deidara, but his blood was pounding in his ears as he looked at the back of the card in his own hand before taking off with more energy than he'd ever felt. More power and adrenaline and more _everything_ than he'd ever felt, it was liberating, it was _fantastic_, and as he bound into his home, nearly punching his foot through the woodrot, he felt so perfect. So alive. Grabbed a duffel bag and scooped what he needed into it. Except for his wetsuit and sexwax, all of it was generally in the same place on the floor (being his favorite set of clothes, toothbrush, wallet, emergency three-pack of condoms, comb, CD player, extra pair of semi-clean underwear, and water bottle), and he was on his way out the door before he spotted his father's camera sitting on the kitchen table and realized he'd nearly forgotten the tent. So he doubled back to the garage and slung the case over his shoulder, grabbed the camera, and promptly remembered he'd made the sound investment of acquiring a solar powered cell-phone charger and ran to get that too. And although, collectively, it took more time than he'd ever imagined, it was only ten minutes since abandoning Shikamaru when he raced out of the house for the train station, mentally trying to recollect what line would take him to Chiba and a smile so thick on his face it'd couldn't be _torn_ off.

--

The sun was hanging low and dips of light were crooning sweetly across the sky, a honey glaze of a sunset that was perfectly cloying and the kind of thing most people liked. Most people would find soothing. Sasuke didn't. His toes were loosely into the sand, waiting on a towel and expression blank, harmoniously _flat_. He'd changed into black once the sun had begun to go down, but still a tight, breathable material that let him stand the heat, even as the temperature was starting to drop. It was eight or so, and Itachi had long since returned to the ship to work and sleep. His brother had gained a little color since they'd originally disembarked, but on the same token, Itachi had spent far more time outside than Sasuke.

He chewed a nail. The tourists were mostly gone by now, having eaten dinner and probably off to enjoy the nightlife. Sasuke hadn't eaten since breakfast, and his stomach was whining, piteous and purposeless, but he didn't mind. He could eat later. A ways away, a few teenagers were sitting around a campfire, and one had an acoustic guitar. All of them were singing, so it must have been a relatively popular song, but he'd never heard it. It would have been a calming tune if any of them were in harmony or if he were close enough to actually hear the words, but he was neither, and so it was only irritating.

His eyes moved back to the book in his hands. _... Despite how stupid it is, how mindless, you smile._

_(Why do I think like this?)_

He glared at the words, a little embarrassed by it. It sounded like a mildly existential version of an emo kid's diary. But he kept writing, as a stream of consciousness more than anything else: _I had a nightmare last night. I can't remember what it was about. Which, in and of itself, isn't unusual. But the phenomenon that the subconscious present can be lost upon entering the conscious state worries me. "Am I man dreaming he is a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming he is a man?" sort of question. It occurred to me that if your conscious personality is developed by your surroundings and memories, what is your subconscious developed by? What shapes the images seen when the eyes are closed? I doubt it's to any degree relevant to dying, however, as most of the topics in his journal are. Sleeping isn't at all like dying. Sleeping is... regeneration. Preparing for life. The same as cells regenerating to heal wounds and cuts. Sleep tends to consciousness, and from there... is subconsciousness._

_So what makes dreams?_

_Or more pressingly, what makes nightmares?_

_Fear is a phenomena that could be speculated on infinitely, regardless. I tried to draw what I'd seen immediately after waking up, and I couldn't bring it to paper. It wasn't a matter of my inability to actually draw (though, given enough time, that likely would have been a factor), but instead.. it was that I couldn't produce all of the extrasensory information I was taking in. The few nightmares I do remember often have the same elements. The physical feeling of sickness and nausea. The pain in the ears from attempting to register too much sound. The horrible taste associated with whatever the subconscious chooses you to taste or smell. You wake up, and those feelings are still with you. But in your nightmares, unlike in your dreams, you can scream at your subconsciousness all you want. Unaffected. Like watching a horror movie. Is that a side effect of Non Rapid Eye Movement Sleep, where nightmares always occur? That you're at a bridge between consciousness?_

_What is fear so that it can be completely irrational and go against baser instinct? And, although this is only vaguely related, would it be so unlikely that there were a series of images that truly could kill a person? Or, at the least, drive one insane? It's frustrating that such contemplation would be inspired by such a dumb movie, but I couldn't help but wonder. Why wouldn't there be? If the human mind is fragile enough to broken by going to war, or by long periods of isolation- If the psyche is really so easy to destroy, how come there couldn't literally be something that you couldn't psychologically process? An image, or series of images, that were so destructive to the "soul" that you simply.. ended. Through death, through insanity, it mat_

He slammed the book shut mid-word, whipping around. He could have sworn- "Sasuke!" ... there it was. He stood, tucking the book into the bag he'd had slung over his shoulder when traveling about, turning around to locate the source, and distantly, he saw it. It was a way's up the rock, and he snorted softly, wondering how on _Earth_ the dobe had gotten so damn lost that he'd ended all the way up there. "Sasuke! Sasuke, where the fuck are you?!" Naruto disappeared behind a patch of trees and he rolled his eyes, sitting back down and pulling out his phone. Sent him two words (Come back), and dug his toes through the sand. The harmony of the sunset was over now, the pinks and oranges and purples beginning to vanish from the sky and replacing the sky with a dark blue that wasn't going to last much longer than 30 minutes before it retreated into complete darkness, and on cue, every little shop and stand's lights went on at the same time.

Naruto must have received the message, because he heard a distant squall of frustration and the sound of twigs and leaves crunching under his feet. He picked up his phone again (Down here, idiot) and reclined entirely on the towel, closing his eyes. The sound of the blonde bounding toward him was so loud that he heard it coming around a hundred yards away, but he didn't bother opening his eyes until he was within touching distance, his surf board skewered into the sand next to them.

"... Heartbreak. Omigod. You would not even believe how hard it was to get here. The fucking map said to just take Train A and it take me here and I would take Train B to take me to the friggin' beach but they were both wrong and it was total bullshit and _augh_. I don't even know."

He pursed his lips, taking in his appearance as the blonde babbled. Lots of color. Faded from washing it too many times, and the ink looked hand-dyed. A bandana rolled over, wrapped around his forehead and tied at the back of his head through his hair, and a couple of hemp necklaces strung around his throat. A tank top that wasn't tight enough to be a wifebeater, but ended at his biceps the way a wifebeater would. Marker all over his arms, mostly nonsense doodles in different colors and each as sloppy as the next. Scars on his cheeks that were difficult to not stare at. Blonde hair that he still couldn't get used to. Naruto looked a combination of exhausted, wired, apprehensive, and delighted in a way he'd never perceived on anyone's face in his _life_.

And Sasuke kissed him.

"Don't call me Heartbreak."

--

**A/N**: *For those who know nothing about the Japanese language, I thought I should let you know that Naruto's not actually saying anything here. He's just babbling in Japanese to emphasize that he doesn't like. I mean. Technically, there is a translation, but it's essentially nonsense when strung together like that. Also, when he says "not saying anything directly", he's referring to Japanese being an annoyingly ambiguous language. In English, everything is very direct. In Japanese, not so, which is generally what makes it the most difficult for Westerners to work in a Japanese setting.

This chapter is dedicated to all the reviewers who have been patient with me since I started this fic. Names that come to mind are Queer Vulgarity, KinkyK, Nikkapillar/CumCakes, moopad, RogueWriter14, aivivi, Moola Deena, Katsheswims, Violet Intoxication, Nozomi-sama, and tons of other people. Thanks for always being able to force me out of my writer's blocks. I mean it. And for that matter, to essentially _anyone_ who ever left me an encouraging review, thank you. Without them, I don't have any drive to keep writing. You are all the best.

... Could anyone else seriously go for a milkshake from Hardee's/Carl Jr.'s?


	10. The Happiest Days of Our Lives

_**Brain Damage**__  
Chapter Ten_

Naruto blinked, blue eyes wider than dinner plates as he followed Sasuke's retreating back, for once not staring at him in favor for all of the things around them, all of the glossed over wood and the expensive lights and the delicate glass and big windows, open and letting the air in - "Omigod, this is really... nice." - and it was all so disgustingly self indulgent, since a toilet worked regardless of whether or not it was made out of marble or ceramic, but he couldn't help it. The floors were all covered in one of those dark red rugs that had golden arabesque designs all in it, and the walls were clean and the paintings weren't crooked and every door handle was gold and it was just. _Nice_. It was all really, _really_ nice.

"Don't attract attention to yourself. For all intents and purposes, you're a stowaway."

His tent slung over one shoulder, duffle bag slung over the other, and although he could normally appreciate the humor in what Sasuke had said (attracting attention to himself had become standard. Impossible to avoid.), for now, he didn't. Because he was too busy gawking. Sasuke pulled a key from his pocket, sliding it into the lock with a series of clicks and the rigmarole of irritated cursing at the resolute truth that no matter how rich you were, the key will somehow never work the first time, and opened the door with a frustrated grunt, flicking on the light switch to the small cabin that he'd been living in for the past two weeks.

"Put your tent up in the floor or something. Bed's a single, and it will _remain_ that way." Naruto snapped out of his daze, catching up to him with a whine and throwing his arms around his shoulders, the gesture in and of _itself_ very familiar - he did it all the time at school - but Sasuke's reaction strange and alien. The Uchiha squirmed, as if momentarily deciding whether or not this was one of the Allowed things, before wriggling out of his grasp (_without_ hitting him, thankyouverymuch. This wasn't a step forward, this was a Mao-style great _leap_ forward) and wrinkling his nose in agitation. "Did you hear what I said?" The blonde grinned, all thirty-two of his adult teeth dazzling and perfectly straight. "Yeah, yeah, I got it "

Sasuke didn't really know what to do with him as he watched the blonde drop his still-packed tent in the center of the floor and immediately start walking about, first exploring the bedroom area, which - sexual harassment aside - he didn't find particularly interesting, then amusing himself with the living room area and proceeding to push every button he could find, and finally digging about in the bathroom as if he halfway expected to find something scandalizing there. He didn't know why he'd brought him back here. It wasn't a sexual thing; he'd made that _abundantly_ clear to Naruto and he was fairly sure, in his heart of hearts, losing his virginity wasn't a subconscious desire happening at the moment. Somewhere between making out on the beach and watching Naruto surf under the multicolored fireworks, Sasuke had realized he simply didn't want to abandon him yet.

And so he was here.

"-and I was all, 'HOLY SHIT YOU ARE A GODLESS KILLING MACHINE', and so I punched it in the face, and the shark was all 'ohhh fuck me' and it swam away and I was all 'HELL YEAH, I PUNCHED A FUCKIN' _SHARK_' even though sharks are totally cool, don't get me wrong, they're just godless killing machines who only ever appear in the media when they thought it was a cool idea to bite a surfer or some shit, and then I woke up. It was a great dream, not gunna-"

"Naruto."

The blonde's face fell, and Sasuke blinked. "... are you gonna kick me out now."

"I will if you don't _shut up_, but I was going to give you the _ground rules_ that will keep you from getting a couple of cinder blocks tied to your ankles and you from getting tossed off the side of this stupid boat." Naruto brightened a little bit, the irritated look on Sasuke's face familiar and always darling, grinning as he returned to the bedroom and unzipping the case holding his camping tent. "Lay 'em on me, my lovely frigid bitch~ "

Sasuke scoffed. "One. Do not try to fuck me."

"Oh, naturally. I don't _try_. I _succeed_."

"Two. Do not ejaculate anywhere _near_ me. And, just so we're clear, anywhere _near_ is within two hundred meters of me."

"..."

"... _Americans_. Six hundred and fifty-six feet. And two inches."

"SIX HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SIX FEET."

"And two inches."

"_SIX HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SIX FEET_."

"Stop screaming."

"THAT'S _SO MANY FEET_."

"That is the _point_ you hormonal _cretin_."

"...Jesus. Rule three."

"Do not hide in closets. Or anywhere. Do not try and watch me shower. Or change. Do not take any more _pictures_ of me with your cell-phone or I'll toss it overboard."

"That's like, five rules in one."

"Then we'd be on rule eight: do not let my brother see you."

Naruto looked up from the directions he was trying to interpret and blinked. "Why?"

"Because I don't know what his reaction would be, however, it could be negative and he could tell my parents." The same parents that _hated_ Gaara, _detested_ Sasuke's relationship with Gaara, and pushed their move forward far too hastily just to get their son away from the "bad influence". Naruto watched him for a moment, blue eyes too large compared to the rest of his features, but set perfectly in his skull. A perfect, Anglo blue. Hitler would have been proud. Sasuke blinked, realizing the look on Naruto's face was a 'Yes, _and_?' and Sasuke rolled his eyes, mentally hitting himself for spacing out. "And that would be bad."

"...I think I'd remember these rules better if you omitted number two."

"You'll remember them _fine_. Oh, and do _not_ leave marks on me."

"......... you are a succubus from hell "

--

Naruto'd nearly _salivated_ when Sasuke stepped out of the beach tent, his usual garb (black, black, black, god the kid was _so_ emo) discarded in favor of a wetsuit that was so skin-tight that the few areas of the Uchiha's body he _hadn't_ already seen were basically stricken from his imagination. Because the suit left _nothing_ to it. And it must have shown on his face because Sasuke's face contorted through a series of emotions that started with is-there-something-on-my-face? confusion, then oh-fuck-me-how-tight-is-this realization, followed quickly by a _darling_ rush of blood to his face, and very quickly followed with a rush of stop-fucking-staring-you-fucking-gaijin-rapist that presented itself in the form of a furious glare and the uncomfortable sound of grinding teeth as he stated, dully:

"Take a picture. It'll last longer."

By the time Naruto had recovered his dad's camera, hands shaking so badly that he'd dropped it three times, Sasuke had vanished from where he was standing and had briskly gotten halfway down the beach. The only reason Sasuke was _wearing_ the black material, which clung up to his throat and covered every inch of him but his face and feet, was because he apparently knew how to surf and Naruto had positively _begged_ for them to surf together. Despite the concept directly violating one of the first things he'd learned about Sasuke - that he _hated_ water. Not the ocean, it was water. All water. Like a fucking cat. He could swim, apparently had his own jet ski at his parent's marina, could surf, and one of his closer friends practically _lived_ in the school's swimming pool. But Sasuke just really didn't like the water.

Nevertheless, Naruto had pleaded and whined, and since Sasuke wasn't nearly as immune to the blonde's tantrums as his parents, he'd given in relatively quickly. So they'd gone to the beach, something Naruto had insisted they do almost every day, and after three days of it, Sasuke burned like an Irish woman in the desert and spent two days laying on his stomach inside, resulting in cockblock so fierce that it was about equal to their second week of acquaintance (wherein Sasuke had become used to the advances and thus, far more creative in his efforts to evade them). This, however, this was a big deal. In fact, his whole _day_ had been a big deal.

He'd gotten to make out with him for like. _Easily_ thirty minutes after waking up. Then breakfast on the deck (Sasuke apparently managed to convince the people who worked there that Naruto was Mikoto's guest, since her ticket was still considered valid along with Fugaku's), then more making out, even if the stupid bastard wouldn't let him leave marks. His argument was that Itachi might see. Naruto's rebuttal had been that if he couldn't leave marks over _summer_ while they were alone on a fucking _boat_ with their own little apartment and everything, he would never get to leave _any_. Sasuke had no sympathy. But afterwards, they'd gone out to a beach town and messed around with the relevant beach paraphernalia, and after they were leaving the arcade (Sasuke had _not_ found Naruto amusing when he'd claimed "Dude, you're _Asians_. This is _Japan_. Aren't you supposed to be one of those crazy mall DDR addicts just by _default_.") - and he'd pretty much been satisfied until Sasuke made an offhand comment in conversation that he knew how to surf.

Completely unsuspecting of the bullshit in-store for him.

But the bullshit came, and now he was walking away, the material curving over his thighs in a fashion that was almost _unbearable_ to look at. And he didn't notice until he saw a girl outright _staring_ at him that he had an erection, an increasingly painful one, in fact, because wetsuits and erections didn't really go together. Even the kind Naruto wore, which cut off at the biceps and mid thigh and thus, unlike Sasuke's, was a lot more free? Yeah. Your body mass really wasn't supposed to change mid-wearing it. But Naruto, eyes on the prize and shame probably forgotten on the plane the day he deboarded at Tokyo International Airport, jogged to Sasuke's side with his board under one arm, grinning and kissing his cheek.

"You are so hot."

Sasuke glanced at him, and in the natural guy way that was _impossible_ to not do (especially during adolescence) his eyes immediately flitted over Naruto's figure, freezing momentarily at his crotch before jerking towards the half-polluted water, cheeks vaguely red. "Lucky for you, the water is not. So that should be _gone_ momentarily."

How jerks were _always_ right was beyond him.

But he didn't care. Because he was currently doing with Sasuke the first half of almost all of his wet dreams. (The second half usually involved fucking him on the beach, but since he was fairly sure pushing his luck _wasn't_ a good idea, he contented himself just watching Sasuke paddle out once the water got too deep), and it _was_ contenting. It was painful, because it was watching Sasuke be more attractive than Naruto had ever seen him before, even when he was fucking _masturbating _in front of him, and _this_ was hotter. But at the same time, it was just. Perfect. In this weird, inconceivable way. It was _actual_ beauty. Not conventional, poetic bullshit. 'Pale skin and raven hair and perfect lips' and all of that crap, that described basically every goddamn person in Japan that was under 35. What was _beautiful_ was the concentration. And the care. How when Sasuke's hands and feet were up from the cold-as-fuck seawater, his nails were already going slightly blue from lack of oxygen. How his wet hair matched the reflected sheen from the clingy suit meant to keep him warm, and how his dark eyes matched that, like he was _made_ for this stupid sport.

And Sasuke wasn't _that_ good at it. He worked well without contact; if no one was near him and no one joined him in a given wave, he seemed a lot more confident, his balance was far better, and he could ride the tide entirely out if nobody distracted him. But something about someone else being there seemed to, _consistently_, give him a mini-panic attack and nearly every time, he crashed out. They couldn't surf _together_. Which was upsetting. Granted, pretty much eleven months out of the year, being a solitary surfer was totally fine. The one month it wasn't, however, was the month when the waves were the best and the water wouldn't kill you. But even with him _not_ being that good, Naruto thought it was gorgeous. Thought it suited him, that Sasuke wouldn't know how to handle contact sports. And halfway through a wave, Naruto spotted him working back and forth through a particularly violent tide, and in an act of sudden but _desperate_ elation, he threw his weight towards it and made the cross just long enough for Sasuke to get that horrified look on his face and for his footing to fuck up when he grabbed his wrist and kissed him like there wasn't going to ever be another one.

Crash.

Water.

Roar.

Buoyancy.

Air.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT-"

"I love you."

"SHUT UP GODDAMN, WE COULD HAVE-"

"No, I seriously _love_ you."

--

If Itachi knew what was happening, which it was very likely he did, he was doing a decent job of not interfering. That was one of the pleasant things about having someone nearly identical to him in personality (though admittedly more mature) for a brother; Itachi treated him not necessarily as an equal, but with a sort of distant respect. If Itachi knew that his brother was suddenly spending all of his time with a Gaijin that just _happened_ to show up at every island they docked up, then he wasn't saying anything about it, and Sasuke appreciated that. If Itachi knew that said Gaijin had actually been camping out on the floor of Sasuke's suite inside the ship, he was kindly pretending he didn't. And Sasuke appreciated that.

Naruto had been _stunningly_ disappointed that Sasuke didn't let him into bed with him. Not in the sex way, he was well aware that sex was a gate that would require just as much steady and patient persistence as their first _consensual_ kiss (for the record, nearly two months), but the idea of not being able to get in the tiny little single bed the Uchiha was sleeping in every night and crushingly cuddle up to him? It had been an awful wake up call. Sasuke had told him, point blank "If you want to stay here, put up your tent and sleep in it." Which, of course, earned him an erection joke that Sasuke didn't get at _all_ because it got lost in translation somehow, but aside from that, Naruto smiled.

All the time.

Naruto smiled when Sasuke pushed him away when he tried to suck his neck. Smiled when the Uchiha insulted him, or punched him, or elbowed him in throat (which was _extremely_ painful and Sasuke was _hella_ good at it); smiled when Sasuke locked the bathroom door when he went to take showers, smiled when he'd throw - one by one - the tower of books he'd felt the need to bring when he'd spider-sense Naruto was jacking off in the tent set up in the middle of the floor. Smiled when Sasuke called him any number of names, half of which were in Japanese and the other half in Korean.

Naruto smiled because for all of the shitty things Sasuke did or said, there was always another side of it. There were the times when Sasuke would wake up at three thirty in the morning, after the blonde had finally fallen to sleep, and jostle him awake so they could make out clumsily in the dark. There were the times when Sasuke would patiently, and slowly, answer all of his questions about the places they went to and why it was relevant. There were the times when Sasuke would awkwardly translate things for him into English (which Naruto secretly enjoyed because his accent was fucking _adorable_) when he couldn't read it at all, either because it was in Traditional Japanese or because it was above Level 4 on the JLPT*. There were the times when Sasuke'd go into a convenience store to use the bathroom and come out with an ice-cream bar just for him, because the brat hated sweets himself (though had a weird affinity for tomatoes). The times when Sasuke would laugh, actually _laugh_, and the sound was so alien but perfect that it made Naruto's stomach twist like he was meeting him for the first time.

Naruto smiled because, on so many levels, the good outweighed the bad.

And Sasuke knew that. For how alien the blonde made himself out to be, he truly wasn't so impossible to understand, once the culture block was discarded. Naruto wanted to do him. Everything he did or did not do was motivated by that desire. If anything, he was a monumentally simpler creature than most people he knew, because Naruto was chasing baser instincts. Something in Sasuke's physiology represented what he, at the chemical level, needed. It wasn't - it _couldn't_ - be about love. Because if love really did exist, it couldn't be an all of the sudden thing. Naruto wanted him for the same reason that thin women usually found muscular men attractive. For the same reason thin men found heavy-set girls attractive. At the chemical level, you see what you lack in a potential mate and you want that person as your mate.

At least, this was what Sasuke was telling himself. The same way he was telling himself that the only reason he felt the sickening flickers of attraction pang through his stomach when he saw Naruto dripping in sea water and sand clinging to his legs - in the same way, Sasuke told himself it was just a chemical thing. He was thin, not particularly muscular, highly intelligent but physically inadequate at the hunt-gather level. Naruto represented what he required to survive. Chemically. So Sasuke refused to acknowledge the documenting voice in his head that chose what he hated about Naruto (a list that wasn't as long as it should be) and what he liked about Naruto (a list that was _far_ too long).

It was just.

Chemical.

--

LOVERLY SUMMER opened three days before school started.

Two days before that, the ship had docked for good, and Sasuke was relieved of his company for _maybe_ four hours before - bent over the last few pages of his summer reading - he'd heard a faint tap and jerked up, startled, effectively losing his place as the novel slipped from his hands and a curse rolling from his lips like it belonged there. In the time he'd spent with Naruto, he'd stopped ignoring faint, insignificant noises. He waited for a moment, trying to identify its source, and rolled his eyes as the same faint tap came from his closed and locked windows on the other side of the room. God, was the idiot _trying_ to fit some stupid stereotype? He caught his chin in his palm and twisted his skull so a few joints in the back of his neck popped loudly, relievingly, standing up and pulling the curtains back.

Naruto's hair was impossible to miss.

He didn't even bother unlocking his window, shutting the curtains and taking out his phone (like he would _ever_ admit that Naruto occupied his speed dial for the number 9), flinching away as the blonde's voice erupted through the speaker - "LET ME IN, TEME, GODDAMN."

"Use the front door, Usuratonkachi."

"...usura- _What_?"

"The _front door_. It's still light outside, you don't have to fucking _break in_."

Naruto's voice inflected with a half-whine, the way it did right before he was about to argue and whine like a brat until Sasuke gave in, which admittedly never took long, and he hung up before the blonde made it past the noise. Distantly, he heard him yell something about how much of a bastard he was, accompanied by a _slightly_ larger stone being hurled at his window, before a few seconds of blessed silence before the doorbell rang. He let the housekeeper get it, since she always did, returning to his desk to read the last few pages before Naruto arrived to make it impossible for him to think for a few hours. The book, The Art of War by Sun Tzu, wasn't the most intellectually stimulating of writings. The translation he'd been given was in basic Japanese (the International school's literature class made the point to teach important Asian literature, instead of focusing on grammar and vocabulary as in their two Japanese classes a day) - and thus, Sasuke had gotten through it quickly.

A few minutes from the doorbell ringing, Naruto bounded in without knocking, another thing Sasuke had come to expect (and thus why he'd trained himself to lock the bathroom door behind him, and the cabin door if he was changing and Naruto was out). "Sasuke, you jerk, why didn't you just throw down the friggin' rope ladder."

"Naruto, what do you want."

"I _missed _you "

"We spent two weeks together. And we were apart four hours."

"_Damn_, don't remind me." Sasuke had already turned around in his seat, opening his laptop to finish his report. "B-but! That's not _actually_ why I came. I mean, I _did_ miss you, but I need your computer. And printer. And stuff."

This actually surprised him a little. Was he doing _homework_? "See, cuz, my lifegiver's store is opening in a coupl'a days and they want me to make fliers-" Of course he wasn't doing homework. "-and hand them out in that bigass crosswalk for a few hours because apparently they don't think I have a life." Sasuke snorted dryly. "Only we don't have a printer at home because my parents are all '_mannnn_, fuck printers. Printers are _gayyyy_. And not like, hell yeah my cock plus your ass equals cool shit. I mean all. Gonna jack up the environment by being impossible to recycle and release lots of ultrafine particles into my air. _Yeah_.' And even though they're running a _store_, they won't buy a printer besides the receipt one because that's heat-reactant paper. Or light-reactant. I dunno man. Oh, and my computer was jacked up like nobody's business anyway, so I need to use yours. And your printer. And I could really appreciate it if you'd point me in the direction of a Kinko's."

"...Kinko's?"

"... uh. Ohgod. Um. Feddekusu. Um. Kinkouzu?"

"..."

"You go there to make copies."

"... good _god_ your pronunciation is horrible. A copyshop, fine. What kind of a store is it?"

Naruto blinked. Sasuke was in a strangely talkative mood today. "Ha _ha_, that's actually a really, really good question. Um.. do you know what a hippie is?" Sasuke's blank expression told him No, and like hell did Naruto know the word for it in Japanese or Korean or Chinese or _whatever_ the teme was speaking this week. "Okay, so like. Back in the 1960's, America was a really jacked up place to be, yanno?"

"The Vietnam Conflict, right?"

"Well, yeah, but it was more than that. Like, we had this awesome president named Kennedy and he got killed and nobody ever _really_ figured out who did it. And black people didn't have equal rights to white people, so there was this movement for civil rights, but a lot of the time, there would be these really bad race riots and people got killed. Like, the police would come in and spray them with water set at a pressure meant for firefighters, or beat them with nightsticks and stuff. And so the whole country was just really, really tense."

The look on Sasuke's face said he knew this, so Naruto hurried the history lesson up. "So, so, there were all these teenagers who wanted peace and it wasn't happening. But in California, it just.. started to work. In this place called Haight Ashbury, which was this district in San Francisco. And everyone lived together and went on peace marches and did lots of LSD, and I know that probably sounds really counterproductive to _you_, but it really mattered at the time. Like, these kids would lay down in the streets as protests, so there was no way it could get _violent_, even though it sometimes did. Which made the police look really, really bad. And this guy named Scott McKenzie made this song called San Francisco, which got on the radio, and it told people to come there if they supported the movement and stuff, and they did. And it kind of just.. showed the country how much everyone cared about the world. Like, before that, teenagers were just... unaware. Didn't care about the news or anything, but that was the first generation that did."

"So there was this huge subculture that came with the movement, and a lot of fantastic music got made. So there were these two music festivals, the Monterey Pop and Woodstock. And my parents met at Monterey Pop and went to Woodstock together. Anyway, even though the movement ended after this crazy dude in the desert killed a bunch of people trying to start a race war, a lot of people held onto it. And Haight Ashbury was like, this relic of the movement. And it's still almost completely pretty well preserved. Like, after Mum and Dad got married, they bought this place there and turned it into a restaurant and a.. Hippie related stuff shop. Like, they wouldn't see tye-dye because they said selling it was fake, you were supposed to do it yourself, but they'd sell dye-kits I put together or dye something for you right in the store. So.. now we're opening one here."

Sasuke just stared for a very, very long time. "... that's. Interesting."

Naruto snorted. "Thanks for laying it on easy. Anyway, I have to make a flier with all the Psychedelic shit on it. I hate the name though, _God_. Like, back home, the store never had a name, but we'd been there for so long it didn't really matter. Now that we're here, we needed one, and the best one we could come up with was some Engrishified version of Lovely Summer." He rolled his eyes, popping his knuckles. "S'yeah, can I use your computer?"

Sasuke sighed and nodded. Despite that Naruto was talking enough for his jaw to fall right off his _face_, he actually had a purpose to be here. "Sure. Don't download anything stupid." He closed his laptop and passed it to him, not leaving his desk because - with or without his computer - he still had work to do, and the blonde smiled, catching his hand and yanking him forward for a very full, very _deep_ kiss that made Sasuke's stomach toss so much he felt a little sick. Naruto felt an elbow in his side, not _jabbing_ to try and force him off but certainly still there, and he grinned, licking his lips like a particularly eager pup as he retreated back onto Sasuke's bed to work. The Uchiha had made a disgusted noise and wiped his mouth, face burning dark red as he span in his chair back to the scattered sheets of notes strewn across the cherrywood of his desk.

"... so why don't you just call it the Haight Ashbury Store or something."

And two days later, three days until school started, Naruto spray painted over the original sign out front and replaced it with The Haight Ashbury Store. And even though Sasuke _himself_ didn't show up, throwing some excuse about how he had to re-tailor his kimono (didn't only _chicks_ wear those?) for some religious thing, the opening event was an _astounding_ success. Astounding not because of Naruto's flyer-handing-out skills, although they _were_ admirable, but because Sasuke had given one to his mother and asked her to try and have a few employees go. And for whatever reason, they'd assumed it was a required corporate event. Reasons _not_ including Sasuke scanning the flier Naruto made and adding (in the most simplistic and discrete way possible, of course) three words beneath the business's name.

(An Uchiha branch.)

--

The end of Sasuke's summer was marked with the Obon festival. Technically, Obon wasn't a holiday, so federal businesses didn't close and neither did banks. And technically, there was no _day_, it lasted over a period of days, but - in general - the "festival" where everyone dragged out their kimonos happened on the last day of the celebration. The _celebration_, at this point, was a joke. Once upon a time, it was a very important Buddhist religious event, where everyone prayed for their deceased ancestors because the spirits were supposed to be returning to them during the holy period. People would clean up their homes, put food out in front of the family altars, and rituals to call out and return the spirits to the land of the dead would be preformed.

Nowadays, not so.

The festivals were commercialized beyond words. Huge carnival rides were set up, religiously attended by excited children, adored to an even greater degree by teenagers (especially the girls, who _loved_ getting dolled up in traditional wear), dreaded by the young adults who were moving up the corporate ladder because they would be interacting their cruel employers and colleagues, and dreaded with an even more impressive fervor by the young parents who were attempting to take the rituals somewhat seriously so as to set a good example for their children, only to get dragged along because their children want watermelon or a fan or some onigiri or a pretty lantern. Etcetera, etcetera. Sasuke made a point to attend the festival every year, despite of how little religious significance they really were, because he was more adamant when it came to faith than the average person, and because of that point of comparison, he tended to _act_ more adamantly than he _felt_. Did he really care about the spirits of his ancestors? Probably. Did he care enough to clean the whole house and pick his precious, home-grown tomatoes to sacrifice to their "hungry spirits"? No, probably not. But he did anyway.

Naturally, when Naruto learned of this fantastic event where everyone dressed up like hot Geishas and people set lots of stuff on fire, he had to get in on it. Even if he didn't have a kimono, he _had_. To get in. On it. And naturally, natural as a bird in a tree, instead of thinking of all the _other_ friends he had that could probably take him (Hinata, for example. Or Sakura, she was adjusting pretty well. Or, y'know. Pretty much anyone) he immediately called Sasuke and _demanded_ an explanation for why he had not been informed of this fantastic-sounding holiday, to which Sasuke only scoffed and replied. "Because you're an idiot who felt me up for a month and a half straight during our Asian Theology and Philosophies class instead of actually _listening_. Because if you _had_, you would have been well rehearsed in everything _about_ Obon. Dobe."

Naruto's brain stopped processing at 'feel me up'.

But nonetheless, that last Sunday before school resumed, that last day which Sasuke had so very much intended to devote to religious worship _alone_ (Fugaku and Mikoto had managed to get the day off, but succumbed to exhaustion and hadn't budged for nearly 18 hours when Sasuke'd last checked, and Itachi hadn't gone in nearly four years) and _not_ think about his unhealthy homosexual relationship with an American transfer student who'd been trying to get into his pants from literally the _moment_ they met; nonetheless, that last day, he'd ended up texting Naruto directions to where the main festival was going to be. Managed to keep his face stoic as the blond bounded towards where he'd said to meet, even though his lips were trying so forcibly to smile, and managed to remain almost completely still when he felt the arms close around his back and his balance fail as they tugged together crushingly.

"Stupid, you were totally gonna ditch me!"

Sasuke snorted. "You're American. What could this festival _possibly_ have to do with you."

"You're here. In a dress."

"It's not a dress."

"It's a dress."

"It's _not_ a dress."

"Your mother is a dress."

"That-"

But Naruto's hands were cradling his face already and he felt their lips crush clumsily together, the way they often did when Naruto kissed him first because Sasuke would never be prepared for it and he'd try to flinch away on reflex, but - as had become at least _vaguely_ normal - Sasuke relaxed slightly in his arms and returned it, the pressure firm but not violent or a horrible battle for dominance. Sasuke didn't feel a need to exert some suppressed rage over Naruto because he didn't sexualize anger, he sexualized _sex_. And that was _it._ And in that regard, he was very, very normal. Naruto's tongue moved over his lips, prodding slightly at his teeth, and he stood up a bit taller so he wouldn't feel like such a goddamn _woman_, parting his lips and twining his tongue slowly, languid like running still-warm frosting over fresh cake, or the clouds parting enough for a honey glaze of summer light to penetrate a thicket of trees. Naruto's hands moved lovingly over his skull, massaging his temples and his scalp and tugging lazily at the thin material at his throat to mouth over it in half-kisses when Sasuke swatted him away, face flushed as he straightened his Yukata.

"No marks."

The blonde grinned, nuzzling him sweetly and kissing up and down his face, closed mouthed and sweetly familiar, lacing his fingers and breaking from him with an amount of reluctance to tug him down the dirt path. The program he'd been given by some poor spat who got stuck handing out leaflets at the park's gates said there would be fireworks over the bay at some point, and ritual dancing at another, but Naruto had immediately tossed it in the recycle bin because he knew if he didn't do it _then_, he'd somehow forget and end up throwing it away. But he didn't mind. Not at all, not in a million years, because Sasuke seemed just so thoroughly _his_ that it made his stomach patter about with lovesick fucking _glee_. Glee that he couldn't put into fucking words if he _tried_. And it seemed like one of those too-good-to-be-true moments, the moment when someone or something would show up to wreck it and the whole world would stop dead like being shaken out of a trance, but that reaper never showed up.

Just Naruto and Sasuke.

And everything was fine.

--

*JLPT - Japanese Language Proficiency Test. It's basically a test they make you take to see how good you are at Nipponese. Level 4: Beginner, Level 3: Basic, Level 2: Intermediate, Level 1: Advanced. Naruto is Level 4, Sasuke's Level 2. At Level 1, you probably wouldn't be attending an International school unless you really wanted to.

**A/N**: CHAPTER 10. I'M IN THE DOUBLE DIGITS NOW, SON. AND LAWL LOOK AT ALL THIS FLUFFFFFFF! And _thank you_, readers, for all of encouraging reviews. In my appreciation, here is a contest. I have a favorite number. I'm not going to say it, since it kills the fun. If your review is that number, I'll PM you and you can request a oneshot from me. This doesn't apply if you're reviewing without an FF net account, but everyone else is clear. So uh. Go? :D

Aaaaand I have an announcement 83 I am starting a **~*~fancy spin off~*~** of this fic called _Mind Gardens_, which is set in the same verse as this one with a Shisui/Itachi focus, back when they were in University together. Every chapter but the prologue is going to be lemony fresh |D I'll be posting here and on AFF, though the AFF version is going to be more graphic. IE: MORE AWESOME.

I adore you all~!


	11. A New Machine

_**Brain Damage  
**Chapter Eleven_

The morning of Uchiha Sasuke's first day back in school began as they all did. At 0600, his alarm clock buzzed him into consciousness, out of a dreamless but pleasantly warm and comfortable sleep, and he had laid there for a minute or so as the noise only seemed to get louder and louder until he sighed and got up. In the past, his inability to grin and bare just waking up had him late to school four or five days a week, an idea that had disgusted his father beyond comprehension. When he purchased an alarm clock, he learned what the snooze button did and abused it to the point where he might as well not _have_ the device, but had eventually remedied that problem as well. Thus now, Sasuke didn't even bother trying to escape the morning; if he wasn't asleep by 10 every night, he would take one of his mother's Ambien. The way he had the previous night.

As he crawled out of bed, slightly hungover from the medicine but not to the point where he'd sleep most of his morning classes away, he grabbed his uniform and filed into the bathroom for the morning shower. The morning shower lasted exactly fifteen minutes every morning, and this one was no different. Shampoo. Soap. Rinse. Conditioner. Soap. Rinse. After the shower came the towels, the hairdryer, the brush, and finally, the actual putting-on of his uniform, which he would usually have to iron, but on this occasion, they were already straight and wrinkle-free. After getting dressed, he'd returned to his room, opened the windows to get some cooler air in because the heat of being cramped up in his hot bathroom was making him sweat unattractively, and at some point another, his hand had made it to the remote and he'd turned on the news. It would be about 0630.

After checking his email, he would proceed to boot and lock his laptop. The school bag would be packed, as would his camera case, which wore like a purse but was _not _a purse, and the second he got to school would go into his locker. Once he was completely ready to go, he and all of his things would take the elevator downstairs, because the hour was ungodly and too early to walk down four flights. Then would be breakfast. Today was Monday, which meant his parents would already be gone and Itachi was still asleep, and sure enough, such was the case. And, as usual, he made his own breakfast, an omelette and a glass of juice that he ate with a deliberance that was astounding.

At 0640, Sasuke got in his car and drove to school. At 0705, he arrived, ducked in through a side door so as to avoid all of the unnecessary contact taking the main doors would ensure, and by 0708, he was in class with a cup of coffee and a bagel. The same class that began at precisely 0715. In short, Sasuke's morning was very normal. It was around the time that Sasuke was taking his seat that Uzumaki Naruto was even waking up, his own alarm clock broken because of years of systematic abuse, and his mother found him pleasantly asleep a good thirty minutes later than he usual was and persisted to scream bloody fucking _murder_ at him until he crawled out of bed, pulled on his uniform, and got in the car. Because of such, Naruto had no lunch, no breakfast, and stumbled into class with bedhead and bad breath a good thirty minutes late.

But such was normal. It was what he'd been counting on. Just as everyone counted on him to stumble into his seat, open his book, absorb a _maximum_ of three minutes worth of information before putting his head down and almost _immediately _knocking out into a thick, unbending sleep. That is what he, Sasuke, and everyone had been counting on. Because it was the natural order of things. What Naruto had not counted on, though in retrospect, he probably should have, was what happened upon his stirring back into consciousness.

"I don't want you touching me while we're at school."

Sasuke crossed his arms, his expression with a stern sort of resolute that Naruto almost couldn't recognize, and the blonde had only blinked dumbly for a few seconds as he decoded what Sasuke had just said before letting out a horrified, dignified noise and half _screaming_ - "WHAT THE HELL, WHY _NOT_." Sasuke seemed to have expected the overreaction because he didn't even blink, only opting to cross his arms and give him a demanding (please stop yelling, you are an idiot) sort of look and letting out a sigh. "Because it is high risk behavior with zero payoff. If my family is made aware of my relationship with you, I will very likely be transferred out of this school and put into a private institution much closer to home."

Naruto's ears seemed to flatten. "What the hell, _why_."

"My father is homophobic."

"_Yeah_, I figured, I mean, does he _know_ you're gay-"

Sasuke visibly flinched at the word, and Naruto fell silent.

"...... In a manner of speaking."

"What the hell does _that_ mean-"

"Don't _push it_." His tone dropped fifty degrees in temperature, and Naruto only stared at him with something like mortification. Sasuke's cheeks were indented slightly, in the way that meant his teeth were gritted together hard enough to chip, and the blonde deflated slightly, nodding. He'd bring it up again later, he was a curious little thing and when it came to Sasuke, anything he didn't already know was considered open season. Sasuke watched him the way one inspects something fragile for cracks before pocketing his hands and turning around and heading back inside. Naruto watched him go for a moment before unclenching his teeth and catching up to him, grabbing his hand and lacing his fingers.

"Teme, if I stopped dryhumping you in school, they'd _know_ shit was going down."

xx

In an international school, students are constantly being recycled. Students' lives typically depend on their parents work schedules; Japan isn't the kind of place people _immigrate_ to because it's an isolationist, insular country that both hates and doesn't understand foreigners. In any given semester, in a classroom of 40, eight will be lost and eight will be replaced. This semester, it was only a loss of seven and a replacement level of six, but another would come, as always. Nobody who attended the school ever really learned to get close to anyone too tightly because they'd been moving between here and there all of their lives. Sasuke and Naruto were rare exceptions to the case (Sasuke had moved to Korea as an infant and returned to Japan at around fifteen, and Naruto had never lived anywhere but California before this), but for the most part, people were not constant.

In art, Sasuke packed up all of his work that had been on display before Naruto got a chance to see it. Or nearly anyone else. He'd not bothered to go to the student exhibition over the summer - he'd A., been busy, and B., even if he'd not been, he'd have bothered - but apparently he placed in photography. Second, so not eligible for any scholarships, but nonetheless, he placed. His portfolio was small, not even half complete, but his photographs were always almost unbearably gigantic. His proofs were 8x11, but the actual finished projects were usually four by six feet, give or take. Which would have normally made taking him home extremely uncomfortable, but he glued his developed products onto several separate pieces of woodboard. Which allowed for several different ways of assembling the photograph in question.

He sighed, dully, as he packed away the last piece of grayscaled blonde hair into a cardboard box, uncapping a waterbottle as Naruto bound in delightedly. His ability to make something out of nothing was unfathomable, if not a little sickening, but as Sasuke watched him, his stomach twisted strangely. He felt _calm_, just watching him, felt calm and utterly secure the way he had all summer. It was a feeling that spooked him, the same way hearing Naruto refer to him as gay had, and he ducked his head slightly, cringing when the expected "Sasuke!" rung out and the thick arms wrapped around his shoulders. His eyes narrowed and he shrugged him off, not bothering to look him in the eye (or check to make sure Naruto wasn't taking it personally, which he wasn't), grunting a "What do you want?" as he strapped the box closed with plastic tape.

"Your bod. Legit."

He scoffed. "You're an idiot."

"Yeah, _well_. I have to work today-" This actually made Sasuke blink and look up at him, his dark eyes vocalizing the question in a way his lips refused to, and Naruto lowered his voice a little, out of respect "-at my parent's store, y'know? 'Cuz I tried getting a job at a normal place so we could have outside income, but it turns out I can't get a job or something because my visa doesn't allow it or.. something, I'unno. So I'm gonna be working at their place. I won't really get much spending money out of it or whatever, since we're still trying to pay bills and stuff, but I get all of the tips which is starting to be a lot because my dad cooks awesome and that's the only money my parents can really afford to toss around."

Sasuke's expression softened slightly. He had no idea what being strapped for cash felt like, and he knew that he was lucky. He'd been born into money, had an amount of automatic inheritance when he turned 20, would receive quite a bit when his parents died, and - collectively - would probably never _need_ to work a day in his life, by normal standards. Of course, he was accustomed to living in style, but regardless, Sasuke was _very_ well off. He wanted a job - well, _no_, Sasuke didn't actually have his own thoughts on the matter, he was _going_ to work for the Uchiha Corp. just like everyone else did, but he assumed he wanted a job and a family just like everyone else. He watched Naruto babble, letting his hands fall into his pockets. "...and so that's all straight 'n shit, but I was thinking, it'd be really cool if you came with after school today." He blinked, shaking out of his daze. "I mean, it's the first day, you can't lie and say you have any real homework. And I totally ran away from my parents this summer to be with you and they kinda wanna know who you are and make sure you're not secretly apeshit and gonna lock me in a freezer or something."

Sasuke gave him a long look.

"... please? You'll love them, they're just like me."

"That sounds awful."

"I had a feeling you'd say that!"

"Why do you sound enthused."

"Because you just did that thing you do and now you look really hot."

He raised a brow. "I would ask if I cared. Yes, I'll come, but I can't stay long." Naruto blinked, not expecting him to just say yes like _that_, before breaking out into a delighted grin and swooping in for another hug. This one, however, Sasuke avoided, and instead of the slight frame he had grown accustomed to almost constantly touching, he tripped over a box on the floor and nearly bit his tongue straight _off_ landing chin-first onto a desk.

xx

By lunch, Naruto was _extremely_ antsy. When Sasuke had told him no touching in school, despite the concept of it being extremely distressing, he'd managed to convince himself that he could handle it. After all, no touching in school meant no more touching than _usual_ in school, which was a _lot_ of touching. Before they'd 'gotten together' (they _were_ together, right? Sasuke had never technically told him they were. Nor had he ever referred to him as his boyfriend. But that was another story), Naruto spent nearly every day grinding, kissing, sucking, biting, or humping _some_ part of Sasuke. And how Sasuke had managed to put up with it, Naruto could only ration was that he'd apparently wanted it the entire time and was just playing some extreme Asian form of hard to get. Or _something_, whatever. He wasn't the brightest bulb in the bathroom.

In any case, he'd rationalized to himself that not having to touch Sasuke any more than all time couldn't _possibly_ be hard. In just one day of supposedly not touching him, he'd sucked his neck so hard he'd probably given him a hickey in the two seconds he'd attached to him like a vampire, he'd kissed him five times, all in different places, and managed to bite his cheek once. He'd been _aiming_ for the ear, but Sasuke flipped his shit at the last second and somehow, he'd ended up nipping his face. Still, there was one _serious_ problem with not being allowed to touch him; Sasuke wasn't touching him _back_. For over a month, they'd been making out _all the time_. If one were to measure it, they'd pretty much made out every moment they were conscious and _not_ talking, and while Naruto enjoyed talking, his Japanese was terrible (a severely limiting factor), Sasuke's English comprehension was miniscule, and - for that matter - Sasuke wasn't the most talkative little thing.

In short: they made out a _lot_.

And now, instead of that _dreamscape_ where Sasuke was his _wife_ and they lived on the ocean where he _belonged_, he was awake again. Back in school, where Sasuke hated him and he was a creepy, sexually aggressive foreigner. Of course, the minute that school was over, Sasuke would be his again, and even if they wouldn't be out in the middle of nowhere with no homophobic parents to constrain them, Sasuke'd still be a lot more accommodating. Or at least, that was what he _thought. _Nonetheless, by lunch, he was antsy as hell. That, and he had no food. And Hinata hadn't brought him any - not that he was mad at her for it, because Hinata was totally cool and had been nice enough to bring him God _knows_ how many free lunches thusfar - but still. He was in a low mood.

And Sasuke was sitting with _his_ friends. Whose names he'd actually bothered to learn; Juugo, the giant bipolar one who hung out with the kid on the IV. Naruto didn't know what the IV was _for_; he assumed that it was either a perfectly treatable condition in a rough stage or the exact opposite, a completely untreatable condition in a mellow stage. Karin, the hot one with the glasses who rubbed up on Sasuke almost as much as he did. Naruto was the jealous type, and probably _would_ find her existence extremely irritating if it weren't for the fact that she was really hot. And seeing Sasuke with girls was _funny_. Then there was Suigetsu, who he only really saw in the Athletic building but came out during lunch. He was.. really weird looking. And Naruto used to live in San Francisco, there wasn't a lot he could even pick up on the _radar_ as weird, but Suigetsu spent so much time in the pool that his body looked constantly pruned up with the exception of his head. It was just. Yeah.

Then there were Sasuke's _other_ friends, who he didn't spend as much time with as Karin, Juugo, and Suigetsu, but could be seen with enough. He wasn't as good with their names, but there was Tayuya, another hot, loud, dominatrix redhead. And then there was Jiroubou, who was monstrously obese, and apparently was a junior league sumo wrestler. IV kid was part of that group. A set of twins. And a black guy who he didn't know personally, but he played _mean _percussion for the school band.

Naruto himself had settled into his niche. His enemies included vocal homophobes. Which there were plenty of; the vast culture clash throughout the school meant many students of many different backgrounds and beliefs all under the same roof. So there were a lot of people who screamed at him in various languages about how he was damned or something, he only _understood_ English and didn't pick up on the words _fag_ and _hell_ in Japanese for almost three weeks. Aside from that, however, he was how he _always_ was: a social fucking _butterfree_. Everybody was his friend, even if they blew him off and called him stupid, Naruto had an infectious personality that could even melt frigid bitches like his boyfriendthing. So _why_ Sasuke felt it necessary to keep them a secret, he didn't really understand.

Could his dad really just..

Do _that_?

He wasn't going to risk it. Which was why, patiently and for the expanse of the day, Naruto kept to his word and didn't touch him any more than usual. And although the amount of contact being initiated very likely wasn't what Sasuke had in mind, it was the best he could do. And he hoped, somewhere in the depths of Sasuke's apparently pitch black and lead reinforced heart, was something like _appreciation_.

xx

Although his expression wouldn't show it, Sasuke had been counting the seconds until school let out. Class had been exceptionally boring; all of his teachers, despite the classes supposedly being labeled _advanced_, had let them screw around for the entirety of the period. He'd given the new students tours, which had been almost a highlight considering how dull the day had been, even with Naruto dry humping him every spare second he had. His knuckles were sore from hitting him, a punch that had been aimed at his nose but somehow ended up in his very _hard_ forehead, and he'd been bitter about it for nearly an hour afterwords. Not like the idiot could tell the difference.

When the bell finally did ring, he scooped his things into his bag and slung it over his shoulder, ignoring Naruto's delighted ushers of _come on_, as if they were somehow going to be late. Sasuke had let it go on for a minute or so before snapping "Naruto, they will not _fire you_, you are their _child_. I have to get a few things from the art room so _shut up_ and go wait by the car." The car. Not _my_ car. Not _our_ car. Exactly halfway between mine and ours; _the_. Naruto let out a piteous noise and Sasuke's eyes narrowed, and the blonde let out a defeated sort of sigh and stalked towards the teacher parking lot. Students with the highest GPA of their class got to park in special spots in the teacher lot, instead of in the student lot where it was impossible to find a good space and there was a fender bender almost every week.

The Uchiha appeared out from a side door some ten minutes later holding three cardboard boxes, and although Naruto's instinct had told him to jump up and help him, the voice in the back of his head said Sasuke would just get pissed for _doing it again_. Doing It Again means that he's treating him like a girl, and despite how much Sasuke _acted_ like a chick (according to Naruto), he had to remind himself that Sasuke was - in fact - just an insanely bitchy, effeminate guy. Apparently. He pulled the keys out for a moment and popped the trunk, and - not much to Naruto's surprise - its contents were nil, everything perfectly straight as if he'd bought the car yesterday. For a teenager, or, really, for _anyone_, the concept of a clean car was as foreign as having the kind of money Sasuke had. He dumped the boxes inside with an amount of care and shut the trunk with a hard thud, rounding to the front to start the car when Naruto grabbed his arm.

"_Hey_."

Sasuke stared at him. "What."

"What do you mean _what_, kiss me, stupid."

"I'll kiss you when we get there."

"Sas_uke_, come on, you've been blue ballin' me all day."

"...blue what?"

But that was about the end of Naruto's patience and he dived forward, pulling him close and kissing him with such feverish adoration that it made him dizzy. Sasuke froze in his arms, eyes still open and wildly trying to recall if anyone was around, but the blonde mewled sweetly into his mouth and he sighed, meeting his lips in short little dabs of pressure. "There, get the hell off me."

"_Che_, you're such a girl."

"I'm not a _girl_."

Naruto rounded to the passenger's seat, all grins, pulling a CD from his bookbag and tossing it into the back. "I made this for you, teme. It's got all that indie shit you like because nobody else does." Sasuke rolled his eyes, putting the key in the ignition and not bothering to look at the tracklist, instead just popping open the jewelcase and pressing the disk into the player. Naruto watched him, slightly miffed (he was a purist when it came to mixtapes, but Sasuke's car didn't have a cassette player, so a disc would have to be the next best thing. When it came to him, however, a mixtape was an intensely personal gift, and each song took a _lot_ of thought, especially into the order things went into), cracking his neck as they pulled out of the parking lot and the clear sound filled the contained space. And no matter how much Naruto babbled over it, Sasuke was dead silent for nearly the entire drive. He was a purist in an entirely different way; band names and track titles only served to obscure music from what it really was.

(It was a good CD, though.)

xx

The Haight Ashbury (Naruto had decided Store seemed redundant and abbreviated the name even further) hadn't been busy when they arrived, thus Kushina and Minato had been more in _their_ element, rather than in their work element. Which meant when Naruto opened the door, calling out, "Mom, Dad, I'm here!", the two bodies that made themselves present from wherever they'd been prior were looking about the same as they would at home. Meaning, Kushina was wearing a skirt, about twenty necklaces, and _nothing else_, and Minato was only wearing loose manshorts that left nothing to the imagination. This was entirely normal to Naruto, however, this was _not_ normal to Sasuke, and it only really occured to Naruto that this _may_ be unusual when Kushina stepped out from behind a counter and Sasuke's eyes went as wide as dinner plates.

"... who's yer date?"

Sasuke spun around, in that way people do when they're briskly waiting for the other person to put on some clothes, but Kushina didn't make a move to, only crossing her arms and letting out a laugh. "What a tightass! That's fucking _adorable_, good lord." She spoke in colloquial English, so Sasuke only understood about two words of it, still staring at the opposite wall and a thick blush starting in at his cheeks. Naruto flung an arm around him and dragged him forward a few feet, spinning him around to face his mother. If he didn't get adjusted to seeing her naked _now_, then it'd lead only to weird shit later. And it's not like she wasn't hot shit or anything, she was total MILF material and didn't look much older than 26. Neither did his dad, for that matter, who Sasuke hadn't even seen yet in being vehemently distracted by his mom's tits. "Sasuke, Mom. Mom, Sasuke."

"_The_ Sasuke?"

She laughed again, hunching over a few inches to get a good look at him and returning to her weak, heavily accented Japanese. "Hey, kiddo. I'm Kushina, that's Minato. _Damn_ you're just the little cutie, ain'tcha?" She glanced at her son, and then back at Sasuke. "I swear to God, if you were a girl, I'd own your bod so hard you wouldn't know what the fuck hit you." Sasuke's blush extended down to his throat and he pursed his lips, completely unsure of how to react to the situation being presented to him. Every value that had ever been instilled in him said to respect his elders, especially the parents of his (love?) interest. But it was really fucking _hard_ to do that.

"MOTHER, STOP TALKING."

Kushina snorted, ruffling Sasuke's hair. "Use protection."

"Sasuke, don't listen to her, she's high."

He snapped out of his daze. "Protection is good advice. Not that I'll ever sleep with you."

"Oh _snap_."

"DAD, LOOK WHAT SHE DID."

Minato ducked out from behind the counter, giving Naruto's company a _very_ wide smile and crossing in a few long strides to stand in front of him. Sasuke's first impressions: they were _gigantic_. Kushina wasn't _that_ much shorter than Minato, who was an inch or so taller than Naruto, who was _huge_ compared to Sasuke. They both had surfer bodies, they both had plenty of tattoos, and in the face, they both looked almost exactly like their child. Minato moreso, but still, Kushina came through. Minato extended his hand, which Sasuke stared blankly at for a moment before recalling the western tradition of shaking hands and offered his own, every one of his knuckles and joints popping _loudly_ as Minato grabbed it and shook it too hard. "It's nice to meet you. We've heard a lot about you."

Sasuke shot Naruto a look. "Good things, I hope."

"Better than you wish to know."

"He moans your name when he's in the shower."

"GODDAMNIT, REALLY MOTHER."

They were interested in him, like he was a new toy model with fancy bells and whistles, and asked him several questions that seemed all too strange. Instead of asking _normal_ things, like what Korea was like, they instead asked what it was like to live in the shadow of a powerhungry dictator with nuclear weapons. They asked him his opinions on environmentalism, drugs, and sexism, instead of, for example, how _old_ he was. But apparently this was completely normal because Naruto didn't give any inclination whatsoever that they were being too personal. And in truth, while the questions in and of themselves were strange, what was even moreso was how _forward_ they were. How overly open and honest they were about _everything_.

Kushina put a top on at a quarter to five, if you could call it a top, it was more like a tye-dye piece of fabric that she tied over her breasts, effectively squeezing them together to make them look even _more_ obscene and distracting, but in her words "Boobs make money. And since none of you have any, I'm making use of _mine_." Sasuke had thought the logic was completely idiotic, but it turned out to be true; the only thing that appeared to fascinate a Japanese man more than a white woman was a white woman with big boobs. Sasuke spent the hour he'd agreed to stay sitting on a beanbag, eating the food Minato gave him so long as it wasn't a pastry (apparently, people actually cooked psychoactive drugs into sweet foods and served them to people) and watching things happen. A few students from their school came in, mostly Naruto's friends, who didn't seem entirely surprised to find Kushina so scantily dressed. There were younger couples who came for the food, teenagers who dressed the way Naruto did, and older people who usually wanted to buy the vinyls.

It was... different.

But an hour later, as promised, Sasuke got up to go and Naruto immediately followed him.

"Don't you have a _job_ to do?"

"Yeah."

"..."

"..."

"... and are you going to _do it_?"

"No, I'm going to go home with you and we're going to make out on your bed."

Sasuke gave him a wary look, rolling his neck so half the joints popped relievingly.

"You're a moron."

xx

Neither Fugaku nor Mikoto were home when Sasuke pulled into the garage. Which essentially meant they would do whatever they _wanted_, but didn't mean they _were_. In fact, what it was supposed to mean was that Naruto wouldn't touch him at all until they were safely locked in Sasuke's room, away from any maids that might tell his parents about them. IE: what had happened last time. However, Naruto had a tendency to not take anything Sasuke said seriously. In fact, if Sasuke said 'I will never (insert verb here)', it usually meant, 'I will do that in two or three weeks if you pester me about it enough'. With sex, Naruto wasn't particularly concerned about it; he was perfectly contented to jacking off until Sasuke was ready, even if that meant he never got it tap it. The concept was depressing in and of itself, but he _had_ him, and that's what mattered.

However, as they stepped inside, Naruto rather conveniently forgot the 'don't touch me until we're in my room' rule and wrapped his arms around Sasuke's waist, clamping his mouth on his shoulder and humming a contented noise. Which lasted approximately a half a second or so until Sasuke shrugged him off, teeth grinding together and hands clamped in tight fists. "Are you fucking _crazy_." Naruto let out a delighted snort, kicking the door shut and throwing his arms around him in delight. "Good fucking _lord_ you are adorable." Sasuke snarled lowly, glancing in both directions (there didn't _appear_ to be anyone around), but shrugging him off nonetheless. "Get off, fatass."

"Only in yours~"

Which, due to loss in translation, Sasuke didn't understand at _all_, but he acted angry just the same and started up the stairs, leaving the boxes of photographs in his car for another day. He wasn't that tired, and if he cared about the prospect of them suffering heat damage, he might have gone back for them and lugged them into the elevator, but he _didn't_ care. He hated the entire series, hated the prompt he'd drawn at the beginning of the year, and the only piece he _did_ like was safely tucked away in his darkroom, where it belonged. Naruto was talkative as they climbed the stairs, and Sasuke seemed to ease up slightly as it occurred to him how empty the place really was; he couldn't hear anything, including the laundry going or the roar of any vacuum somewhere in the house. Itachi was probably around, but he rarely left his room, to the point Sasuke could sometimes go a good week without seeing him once.

On the fourth floor, when they split off from the staircase and into the hall, Naruto kissed him fiercely, and Sasuke seemed content to allow it, his hands tangling roughly in the blonde's hair, knocking them closer. Initially, Sasuke had kissed him awkwardly, unfamiliar and seeming to not know what to do about the gross difference in their heights, but he'd eventually gotten adjusted to it and to him. Naruto purred into his mouth and wrapped his arms around his waist, backing him up into a wall and resting his knee between his legs. The contact was quiet, quieter than it always _felt_ when they were crushed together like that, Naruto sucking his lips and Sasuke grinding into him harder than he should, everything a heated blur, impossible to comprehend and discern.

".. the hell is that?"

Sasuke's eyes fluttered open as the mouth tore from his, his vision skewed from being too close and on a few seconds delay as he attempted to follow Naruto's eyes. He let out a groan of disgust and shoved him off, yanking his jacket over the fat line of bruises that dusted across his shoulder like stage makeup, glaring at him and grinding his teeth. "Sasuke, what the _hell_ is that."

"I ran into something."

"What, on your _shoulder_ but everywhere else is _fine_-"

"You must be Naruto."

They both seemed to leap out of their skin, heads turning to the voice's source, faces Naruto could barely recognize but made Sasuke pale. Shisui's hands were in his pockets, paintstained overalls and curly hair tied up at the back, and Itachi was watching them both with an air of penetrating sickness that it struck even Naruto silent. He advanced forward a few steps, black eyes in narrow slits and lips pursed together. "I met you once, I believe." The bottom had dropped out of Sasuke's stomach entirely. Naruto nodded, glaring back at them with all of the intimidation he could possibly muster, and Shisui snickered, turning away from them and popping his knuckles.

"Come with us."

Naruto blinked.

Itachi stared.

xx

**OMG WE HAVE HIT 50K**. I'm sorry this took forever sandsmnfsdg. I took some time to actually think about where I want to go, plotwise, with this fic. Where it's taking itself. I also wrote 25k of Mind Gardens with my coauthor Lamb, which has been taking a lot of time as well. Youuu should read/review that one. ShiIta with lots of porn = good for your health. And I don't know if you guys noticed, but my scene breaks that used to be-- are now xx's. That's because ffnet SUCKS and will not let me use them. And it hurts my soul a little bit. I can't lie.


	12. Comfortably Numb

_**Brain Damage**  
Chapter Twelve_

Sasuke waited. It was an exhibition of genuine patience to just _wait_ like this. Not fixing anything, not trying to stop it, just sitting on his bed with his legs crossed. Alone. The questions that ran through his mind were typical, if not understandable. Almost painfully so, to the point that it made himself ache in the cliche, and he stared around his room for something to do. Something that he could use to exorcise the jitters in his stomach, the need to just _scream_ and aware that he couldn't. Waiting was supposed to be worse than the actual conflict, but there were two to one chances the conflict _would_ be worse. And he would deserve it; it would be completely his fault on so many levels that it made his skin crawl. That it made his teeth run together and squeak that horrible sound that sent chills tearing through the nervous system in his spine.

He exhaled.

Rolled his neck, where all of his tension sat, and as usual, it popped.

Sasuke crossed his room and opened a drawer to the pad of paper he used when writing to Gaara. He hadn't written him in weeks, and had been wondering for a while if that was the way he should break it off. Just stop writing. Loneliness is never the reason anyone stops writing, after all. Having love is. And while the word made him cringe - he was hardly in love with Naruto, it was a purely physical thing, and he could (_should_) dump him today and it wouldn't make a difference - it was true. The reason anyone ever stops writing is a name, and the name in question was Naruto's. Idiot Naruto. Who couldn't not touch him for fifteen seconds and now it could be the difference between him transferring schools or possibly fucking _countries_. He picked up the pad of paper and the black pen he always used and they shook slightly in his hands, crossing over to his desk and setting them down.

_Gaara,_ he wrote.

The rest of the page stared blankly at him. It already felt wrong, but he wasn't going to throw it away. That was the way they always stared their letters. He put down his pen and rubbed his forehead, watching it and trying to form in his mind what he wanted to say. Did he _have_ anything to say? He felt like such a hypocrite. No, he had nothing to say. If he was going to officially break up with him, he would at least _call_. He wasn't going to mail it after two months of no communication. He set his pen down on the page and a dot of ink began to gather and grow, and he pursed his lips, smearing it into a series of characters. _I'm sorry_. He sort of was. To the extent he could be. _I'm sorry I haven't written in so long._ Yes, he was. It was extremely rude to not write. _I've been busy._

No, that wasn't right. It was bullshit. He sent it through the shredder and started again.

_Gaara_,

So fake.

_History if repeating itself._

He stared at the paper before setting his pen down. Gaara wasn't an idiot. He could figure it out. He folded and stuffed the letter (note) neatly in an envelope, stamping and addressing it in very straight Korean lettering. When he was done immaculately and slowly finishing the envelope, he sat back. Not knowing what to do. The sick feeling that had never _really_ left his stomach began to return, and Itachi's face reappeared in his mind. The difference between this and a much worse that. The waiting, _that_ was the worst part. Like pacing in an Emergency Room. One doctor being the difference between _he's going to be fine_ and _there was nothing we could do_. Sasuke stood, taking the CD Naruto had made him from his backpack and putting it in his stereo. He fell back onto his bed and looked at the tracklisting, despite going against his personal creed about music, anything to take his mind away from it was enough.

They were all English-speaking bands. He couldn't really tell the difference - in music - between American, English, and Australian unless it was punk rock. His ability to differentiate foreign accents was weak, other than that Americans sounded vastly different from the English and Australians. To them, the difference was obvious. His train of thought turned back from its second or so of escapism to Naruto and Itachi. What if Naruto just wasn't coming _back_. That could explain why it was taking so long. It didn't sound like something he would do, but Itachi was _very_ good at getting people to do what he wanted. Shisui, even more so. He rolled onto his stomach, trying to steady his breathing and relax. Maybe even go to sleep, somebody would wake him up. Goddamnit, this was physically painful.

He got up out of bed, though it took more effort than he'd intended, and crossed to his bathroom. It was immaculate, like the rest of his room, the deep bathtub that he never used seeming almost charming for half a second or so. He opened the medicine cabinet and glanced over the many shelves of bottles filled with canary yellow diazepam, from when he broke his leg. Baby blue percocets, when he dislocated his shoulder and broke his nose. Offwhite oxycontin, when he tore his rotator cuff and broke half of his fingers. Salmon pink ambien that he stole from his mother, and he popped open the safety lock and dry swallowed half a pill. Sleeping pills can't hurt you unless you overdose, and Sasuke always took less than recommended. Just enough to get him to sleep.

xx

"Baby, get up."

Sasuke's black eyes, a little bloodshot from sleeping, peeled open blearily. It took him a moment or so to see; he didn't know how long it had been since he got into bed, but the sun was down and his room was almost completely. Naruto grinned and nuzzled his face, body reclined across from him but not under the covers, instead relaxing on top of the comforter and letting one of his arms hook over Sasuke's waist. "Your mom just said it was time for dinner over the weird intercom thing so you should probably get up to eat, yeah?" Sasuke would have been infuriated to be called anything so demeaning as _baby_ if he were awake enough, but he wasn't. He couldn't pretend to care.

He nodded, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. "What time is it?"

"Sevenish."

"When did you come back?"

"Fiveish."

"Geez..." Sasuke forced his eyes open and looked at the illuminated alarm clock, and sure enough, it read the time a few minutes past seven. It was late. If Naruto hadn't been there to force him into consciousness, he doubted anyone would have really noticed he was missing. There might have been a comment, and then an answer, and whether or not it was the right one was completely irrelevant. That was the order of things. Naruto smiled and kissed his lips, scooping him into his lap and rocking him slowly, almost soothingly. More soothing than Sasuke was really comfortable with, but he didn't shrug him off, instead reclining against him, trying to summon the will to break from the genuine calm he was feeling and go downstairs. To the real world, and being with Naruto was like having a dream about being woken up.

"What happened? With my brother?" His voice was dry. The blonde shrugged, kissing between his eyes. "He just threatened me a lot. And then his mangirlcousinthing put him on a leash and then threatened me a lot too." It wasn't even a fraction of what happened, but part of the threatening involved him not telling Sasuke what they talked about. Itachi and Shisui had been fucking _scary_, a _lot_ scarier than Sasuke's parents, in Naruto's opinion. But in a way, they were on his side. So he was going to play with - not _by_ - the rules, no matter how bullshit they were.

"But he didn't.. tell my father, or...?"

"I don't think he wants to."

Sasuke fell silent for a few seconds before nodding, sliding off of his lap and onto his feet. So tired. _Too_ tired, like he would fall down the stairs if he tried to walk them, so he resolved to not bother and started out the door, heading down the hall, Naruto trailing him slowly and a soft grin on his face. Naruto, the ray of light that made the thick shadows Sasuke cast over everything possible. Who could take Sasuke's fear and suck it out of him like vampire without even trying, and that security, _God_, it made him ill. It made him _nervous_, like he was treading bad water, but what upset him even more was the prospect of breaking up with him.

How had Naruto done this to him- no, how had he done this to _himself_?

"Hey?"

Sasuke jolted out of his sleepy daze, realizing he was standing in front of the elevator but hadn't yet pushed the button. Naruto's hand peaked from around him, the blonde's chin resting peacefully on his narrow shoulder, and pushed it, sighing contently. "Heartbreak, are you okay? I'm getting motherfucking _worried_ about you and I don't like it."

"So stop being sentimental."

Naruto snorted and kissed his neck before letting him go as the doors opened and following him inside. "I can't. I love you."

"You're delusional."

"That's better." He smiled widely, throwing an arm around his shoulder and holding him close. "See, you were freaking me out, being all quiet and cute like that, but now that you're being a bitch again, it means you're feeling better. And you need to be big and strong so that one day I might plow you into another dimension and you would be able to survive."

Sasuke stared, tone flat.

"How romantic."

xx

By Friday, Sasuke had filled up his schedule again. To the point that the concept of spending very much time with him at all was laughable, and if truth be told, it _wasn't_ to avoid Naruto. It was to avoid Fugaku. Everything had a tendency to be about Fugaku, and Naruto hated that. After school, Sasuke now had cram school for three hours four days a week, and track for three hours two days a week. This would keep him busy to around sevenish. Afterwards, he was to take the bus home and eat the leftovers of whatever Mikoto cooked, and if there weren't any, he would toss some noodles in the wok with a few vegetables and szechuan. Then, he would do his homework for an hour or so, longer perhaps if it was translation work or reading comprehension. Including the ride home, this would keep him busy to around 8:30. After that was his free time, an hour and a half until he fell asleep. And he'd fall asleep earlier if that had been a track day.

Track was the only sport Sasuke ever really _excelled_ at. He'd been _good_ at all of them, good enough to be picked second or third in Physical Education, after the extremely athletic students not unlike Naruto. But the problem with standard sports was contact; Sasuke didn't _do_ teamwork. In academics, a group assignment meant he would take it home and do the entire thing himself, because even if it meant losing sleep, it ensured it would be done right. That same conceit followed him into sports. Sasuke _loathed_ the idea of having to trust someone else to help him win. It went against his nature.

Track, however, track was different. It was just running. No one would ever scream at him to throw him the ball, nor would he ever be tackled by an overzealous opponent. And in that regard, it took actual talent to be do well in track. Everyone essentially started on the same base, and because he ran for a church group instead of school (because his school was not involved in any competitive athletics with other schools), it meant that the people he ran against were typically Asian too. So it was fair. Everyone within a three inch range of one another. Everyone having to run just has much as the next person. It was just you and how fast your legs could go, and Sasuke was _fast_.

Unsurprisingly, Naruto had been extremely disappointed when he learned of this. The more days they were in school, the less Sasuke was around. They were _together_, but the Incident had been wounding, and the blonde couldn't help but notice that Sasuke buttoned the collar of his uniform up to his throat and knotted his tie so tightly it couldn't be _cut_ off. He also couldn't help but notice that instead of Sasuke rolling up his sleeves or pantlegs when it was warm, he would just go back inside. And maybe he was just being too goddamn _aware_ for the first time in forever, it was probably just the humidity. Japan in August was hell on Earth in ways Naruto had not known to be possible. But it was making him uncomfortable, and slightly phobic that, fairly soon, he might be back to square one.

But Sasuke wasn't ditching him completely. Sundays, he kept completely open, and Saturdays, he didn't have homework to do after cram school so Naruto had conned him into promising that the weekend were His days. It was in Naruto's nature to try and make good out of something that so clearly wasn't, and he did. But he felt like he'd made a huge fucking mistake. A critical one, and the way his stomach twisted with discomfort was incredible, a strange sort of hurt that made him ill, and Uzumaki Naruto _never_ got sick. Unless he smoked too much pot, then he might get sick. Or if he drank rotten milk, but aside from that. He _never_ got sick, fucking _believe it_. And even if Sasuke was being shoddy as hell and making excuses to avoid him, Naruto wasn't going to go down without a fight. Much less with a _falling out_. That's the worst kind of break up in the universe. When your woman just stops seeing you and talking to you, so it's like having your heart broken slowly and painfully over a matter of weeks, possibly months.

Fuck that. Not gonna happen.

xx

_There isn't a point to this. If a man was walking down a path and came to a fork in the road that he knew would rejoin eventually, it would matter not which path he chose. But if one of the paths went uphill almost the entire way, had no rest stops with water or food, and was known to have deadly animals, while the other path was flat the entire way, had plenty of food and water, and no animals to speak of, the choice would be obvious. Logically, the man knows that he would arrive sooner and in better health on the flat road. Why would he take the harsher one? The same reason anyone does anything self destructive: promise of something better on the other side. Maybe at the end of the harsh road, there was an apple tree with a pile of gold coins at the bottom. Maybe at the end of the harsh road, there were horses for him to ride for the rest of his trip._

_But if there isn't any of that, there truly is no point? It's just self destruction for the sake of self destruction? Is that glory? Regardless, it's what I'm doing to myself. Making the journey piteously difficult under the delusion that the benefits will eventually outweigh the consequences. I can't believe that's possible. In fact, I know it's not possible: in a couple of years, I'll go to University, and he'll probably go back to the US. If it doesn't end badly now, it'll end badly later. I know what transients look like. I attend a school full of them, and even people who think they're moving to Japan for the rest of their lives usually end up out in a couple of years. This isn't the kind of place you can just move to._

_Maybe their business will prosper here and they'll be able to buy back the original building in San Francisco. I wouldn't be entirely surprised; the dollar's extremely weak, and with the exchange rate and the high cost of living in Japan, comparatively speaking, it wouldn't be so difficult after a two or so years of steady business._

_So what's the point? I wish I'd never met Gaara. The benefit of my time with him didn't outweigh the consequences. Not even close. So 'it's better to have loved and lost than to never love at all'? It's a disgusting cliche that doesn't apply to me. Do I care about him even a fraction of enough for it to be worth what Father will do when he figures it out? I say when, because it's almost inevitable. He, not Father but he, is too careless. He doesn't understand the situation for what it is, and for now, that's probably best. There's no point in involving him deeply until I know as an absolute that I want to go down this road. If I can get to the point where the idea of not being around him is something that very much discomforts me, then I can say with certainty that it will be worth it. But I'm not at that point. And I'm not certain._

_I hate the summer. The heat makes you dizzy and stupid. When it's over, you come out of it like a bad high, and nothing about it is ever very clear. A temporary sickness, and when it finally passes, it's difficult to remember. Like a dream. The skin lightens out, the hair darkens considerably, the lips begin that permanent stage of chapped that lasts from October to March. Everything comes down to familiarity and security. I hate how much he acts like every day is the summer solstice._

_It makes me stupid.  
_  
xx

Naruto found that he enjoyed watching Sasuke run. The sport, in and of itself, was pretty goddamn boring, there aren't a lot of ways you can run around in circles. But he liked to watch. He had the same look he had when they'd surfed, face lined in deep concentration and his disgust, if not fear, of contact playing to his advantage. Sasuke ran less like he was running to the finish line and more like he was running away from the other runners. Or at least, that was how Naruto saw it. Sasuke ran on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and Naruto would take him to dinner somewhere after each meet because he'd be starved from the excessive exercise on very little to eat. Sasuke didn't like to eat before the meets because he didn't want his stomach to cramp out so he'd have to stop. "Besides, hunger makes me run faster. The faster I go, the sooner I can eat."

It was dude logic. But apparently effective dude logic.

Naruto did _not_ enjoy cram school. He tagged along with Sasuke exactly twice; the first one, he really wanted to be there and was horrified to learn it was like regular school only worse. The second meet, he made an ass out himself until the teacher kicked him out, a strategic plan so that when he never went back with Sasuke again, the brunette would consider it a favor.

What Naruto loved more than a hundred track meets combined was Sunday. Sunday was his new favorite day. Well, technically, it had been his favorite day since he learned he had school on Saturday, but now, holy shit, it was the new _new_ favorite day. Because it was the day he had Sasuke to himself. His plan for their first free day together was unrealistic, but the fact that he was planning at all was an advance in his mental process. According to Naruto, about 60% of the day would be occupied with making out. He couldn't remember feeling so cockblocked. The other 40% would be occupied by eating and anything Sasuke wanted to do.

Sasuke had different plans for the day, and when they parted at about 7PM, Naruto couldn't really understand what had happened. He felt.. strange. Not happy. Not elated, the way he always did when he was around Sasuke, even if they were doing nothing. He felt uncomfortable. The day had been fine; they'd seen two movies back to back at the two hundred yen theatre, they'd eaten lunch and dinner together, made out a bit, went to Tower Records and bought some CDs. And it's not like either of them had acted any different. They talked. Sasuke called him stupid half a dozen times. Naruto called him a bastard three or four dozen times. Sasuke told him about Asian things that Naruto didn't get, and then Naruto pretended to not understand further because it was funny to watch Sasuke get so irritated over something so minor. They just.. did what they always did. Basked in each others presence and made out when they ran out of things to talk about.

But still.

Something was different.

xx

The following Tuesday, when Naruto had been going through his rounds of obligatory in-class feel-ups, Jiraiya had passed out the information about the hot spring trip Sasuke had gotten all pissy over last semester. It was more like a small _book_ and less like a packet of information, and since many of the student's parents couldn't read the level of Japanese, they spent the entirety of their Japanese Literature, Japanese Syntax, and Japanese Writing classes translating it. Which, of course, stupid Sasuke _breezed_ but Naruto struggled with _immensely_ through the end of the period, because he had a hard time identifying strictly Japanese words and tended to fixate on them, trying to find a translation for it that didn't exist. He also had a hard time with the more formal tenses, which were usually the tenses used in schoolwork, and almost _always_ the tenses used in letters to parents.

The general gist of it was that in late October, they were going to this teeny-tiny town called Kusatsu in the Gunma prefecture for several days. Hot Springs as a concept was just entirely foreign and _interesting_ to him, and when Naruto had gotten home, he'd searched the internet for information in _English_. Apparently, when the molten material under the Earth cooked up in all the right ways, it would eventually become water that had a lot of minerals in it, and sometimes would escape to the surface and form a pool. The Japanese tended to think of the Hot Springs as sacred, and Kusatsu had over 100, so it's both a tourist trap and a pilgrimage stop. Hot Springs seemed to go against all things he'd come to understand as purely Japanese: everyone went in naked, and only some of the time were the women separated from the men. Of course, Naruto thought the idea of nude communal bathing with his classmates to be totally _awesome_, everyone _but_ him seemed to sigh in relief when they figured out that the genders would be separated.

What was really weird was that the minerals were supposed to cure diseases. It could treat a wide variety of pain, circulation problems, make bruising disappear, ease fatigue, and even cure some gynecological disorders. That was fucking _cool_. Another thing that was cool was that everything was built _around_ the hot springs, rather than the American way: plow, destroy, cover up with concrete. They were leaving on a Friday morning and coming back on Sunday, and the array of things they were doing seemed pretty cool. A lot of it was hiking, since apparently the place looked great in Autumn, and another large chunk of it was visiting volcano spots. To his chagrin, there were _museums_ to visit, and for some reason, despite the idea of a museum seeming so inevitably interesting, they just never _were_. He always ended up zoning out so badly that by the time they left, he was $25 dollars short and not intellectually stimulated at all.

But all over, the trip seemed like a pretty good deal. Better than school, and he got to hang out with Sasuke naked. Assuming Sasuke would, and Naruto did. Sasuke was born Japanese, moved to Korea, and moved back. If you lived in America, moved to Korea, and moved back, it was no big deal. People would find it fascinating, want to hear all about an exotic new country and culture, and what it was like living there. The Japanese, however, did not share that nearly naive fascination. They were a naturally stuck-up culture, just as most island nations are, and people who leave and return were not really considered Japanese anymore. They weren't considered _traitors_, and they were welcomed back, the Japanese were too nonconfrontational to actually tell anyone to get the hell out. But the subtle societal pressure said that Sasuke wasn't Japanese, and as a result, Sasuke tended to overcompensate.

Or at least, that was Naruto's theory. It was a good theory. Sasuke would be impressed if he ever vocalized it, but he wouldn't because right after impressed would be an agitated look and, depending on his mood, a punch in the face. And Sasuke was starting to hit him a _lot_ harder than he used to, to the point that he bruised purple (or sometimes bled) and wouldn't be able to shake the pain off for nearly a day. And that was absurd. Naruto had an almost miraculous ability to shake off pain, heal from ailments, and never come out with any lasting marks.

"You're goin' to this, right?"

Sasuke looked up from the book he'd been reading, legs pressed together neatly as he waited for the bus to take him to take him to track. Most of the students were already gone, as they typically filed onto the inter-city buses that took them to the nearest metro station, but Sasuke had to wait for one to take him to the Shinto church. "Going to what?"

"The Hot Spring thing, man."

"I'm class president. Of course I'm going."

"I had a helluva time translating it."

"You should have asked for my help."

"I wanted to see how far I could get if I tried."

"And how did you do?"

Naruto let out a dry snort. "I'm not gunna do myself the pain of answering that. Anyway, how much is it supposed to cost?"

"I think about 20,000 yen."

"_Sheesh_, considering how much of the stuff is free, that _blows."_

Sasuke shrugged. "Half of it goes to the hotel, a quarter to the bus, an eighth to admissions for attractions, and an eighth for meals."

"Do you seriously think in fractions?"

The Uchiha blinked. "What- I knew they taught Fahrenheit and the gallon/pound system in America, but they don't teach _fractions_?" Naruto stared at him for a few seconds before erupting into hard, contagious laughter, or at least it should have been, but Sasuke didn't smile. "_God_, baby, you're fuckin' _adorable_. Do you call 'em a _Royale with Cheese_ too, or is it Ro.. Roi... holy shit how would you even romanize that. ROIYARU NO CHIIZU. Or something."

"Rowaiaru. Stop talking, you're embarrassing yourself."

"Can we room together? At the thing?"

Sasuke looked up at him, frowning. "Why are you asking?"

"...the hell do you mean _'_why am I asking'?"

"You don't ask for anything. You just take it."

"That's not true!"

The book snapped shut. "I disagree."

"Give me _one_ example."

Sasuke's lips pressed together and his eyes narrowed to slits, and damnitttt, Naruto was in trouble. _Bad_. Bad enough that he felt his heart skip a beat. "What if I had been straight?"

"But you aren't."

"But what if I had been."

"I would have just kept trying."

"Exactly."

"... what, that's not an _example_, that's hypothetical!"

"It's an example."

"What is your _problem_."

"You apply chauvinistic principles to me."

"... I do _what_?"

"You see me as a _woman_ and treat me as less of a person for being so."

"The hell are you even _on_, I do not!"

Sasuke stood up as the bus approached, putting his book in his bag. "Think about this. If you had done even a _fraction _of the things you've done to me to someone in an American school, would you be expelled?" Naruto opened his mouth to retort but the words stopped short, and he closed it, looking frustrated. "I thought so. Which makes the shit you've done all the less forgivable. If you'd grown up in a culture that saw that as normal, I would understand, but you _didn't_. I gave into you, and I'm not sure if that was remotely the right decision. I told you, _specifically_, that if you loved me, or at least _respected_ me, you would abide by a number of rules while in my home and you fucking _didn't_ because you're so fucking _stupid_. You see me as a sort of possession and your blatant disregard for my words could have gotten me killed."

"Gotten you _what_?"

Sasuke gave him a look. "I'll go ahead and tell you that I'm not breaking up with you, despite how much I probably should. But you're going to stop touching me in school. You're going to _stop_ ignoring everything I say because you're under the delusion that none of it means anything. You're going to stop coming to my house until I say differently. It doesn't matter if you didn't ruin my life. You still tried and acted like it was nothing."

Naruto watched him get onto the bus, mouth hung open slightly and, for once, he was stricken speechless.

xx

Didn't bother proofing it, and yeah, I know it sucks. Just wanted to put out a chapter before I went to California, which means a hiatus from the 15th-24th. Gonna see my Mind Gardens coauthor Lamblet and have lots of girlsex. Oh, and happy late birthday to me. Finally old enough to use AFF and Facebook legally. If you wanna give me a free present that takes five minutes, **review**. If you want to give me a bigger present, review this one, then go in my story favorites and find the fic called _Battle Royale_ and pressure the writer to update. I fucking love that fic.

...bvcdfdxjmblah. Too depressed to have peppy notes down here. R.I.P. Adam and Justin. You were wonderful people. Nobody deserves to die a year before they graduate High School, especially you two. Readers? You better be fucking careful when you're driving. Adam wasn't doing this when they died, he fell victim to dangerous roads, but this is just a general rule: speeding doesn't fucking make you look cool, it makes you look like a fucking asshole and it raises your likelihood to die by a _lot_. Texting while driving is also fucking stupid so don't do it. Nobody you are talking to is worth killing the person in front of you. And goddamnit. Don't drink and drive. Most of the people on this site are basically children, including myself. Don't do that shit.


	13. Party Sequence

_**Brain Damage**  
Chapter Thirteen_

Naruto was beginning to understand the seriousness of the situation when Sasuke still hadn't contacted him by the end of the week. He'd assumed that the idiot would be angry with him for a couple of days before realizing that being angry was both counterproductive and taxing. After which he would send Naruto a text message asking some nonchalant question, like 'do you remember what pages we had to do for syntax?', and Naruto would answer all nonchalant because calling him out on it would just piss him off, since Sasuke _always_ knew what the homework was and Naruto never did. That was what he'd _expected_, because even if Naruto _did_ have a knight complex and he most certainly did not! - Sasuke would figure ignoring him wasn't going to solve anything. But instead of ignoring him for two days, he'd ignored him for four.

And that was really, really scary.

Every day at school, Naruto restrained himself from touching his boyfriend. It was an unbearably difficult thing to do, A, because Naruto was touchy-feely as hell when it came to anything cute, let along something that as gorgeous as Sasuke that was, um. _His_. _Boyfriend_. But even worse, near the end of the week, Naruto ended up eating a pot brownie and got horny as hell. Among other things. The brownie hadn't been his fault at _all_, his mom was supposed to bake them in the green pan, so Naruto and Minato would know not to eat them when they didn't have a copy of _Finding Nemo_ and a pantry full of food. But no, these had been in the _white_ pan, the pan that meant 'Dude, these brownies are straight up, fucking eat them for their flavor and not their psychoactive chemicals'. And Naruto had.

It had been. Awful.

The thing he was having the hardest time understanding was how the hell the fight had even _started_. He kept playing it over in his head, and it didn't make sense. One minute, it was all 'oh man, field trips, shit is awesome' and then it was all 'I AM NOT A GIRL, FUCK YOU, I WILL SHOVE YOUR BALLS DOWN YOUR THROAT'. Which lead him to one conclusion: Sasuke was, in fact, a PMSing girl. Naruto rubbed his forehead, exasperated. It was _Sunday_, His day! And Sasuke still hadn't returned any of his calls or texts. Naruto had even booted up his ancient computer and sent him a long email (which Sasuke read, but the Japanese was so bad that he couldn't understand it, and since the email username was in a chatspeak English, he still had no idea what the hell it meant. So it went straight to his trash box).

He didn't know what to do. It was his one day off a week, the day when he could run around doing anything he wanted, and he wasn't with Sasuke. The thought made him _writhe_ with agitation. He couldn't get high, because if Sasuke did call and find him giggly as hell and munching on lobster chips (Japanese people were _weird_, okay) he'd just get more pissed off and hang up. It's not that Sasuke had a problem with drugs, necessarily, but the drug laws in Japan were so fierce that he saw it as a needless endangerment to both his and his parent's life. Naruto told him that his parents were the ones that bought his pot. Sasuke just glared. He couldn't really go surfing; the tour season had pretty much drawn to a close, so there wouldn't be rental boards anywhere. He could go work at the store, but it sounded like a painfully lame way to spend his day.

To his surprise, there actually were other numbers programmed into his phone besides sasUKE's home and cell. He made a couple of calls to friends from America, but he had to keep them short since the charge was per minute. They all seemed interested in Japan, several of them telling him to just get an account on a social networking site so they could keep up, but their romanticized view of the country died with _school on Saturday. _When his phone beeped to tell him he should probably shut the hell up because this was costing a lot, he sighed and hung up. He missed America. And wondered if Sasuke missed Korea. He didn't tell any of his friends about him, and for that matter, he didn't know why. His American friends were the perfect people to tell, but it felt like cheating, and he was depressed enough as it was. Uzumaki Naruto, _depressed_? Nobody would have thought it humanly possible, but he was downright mopey.

When Sasuke still hadn't called by two in the afternoon, he ran through his phone and found a few numbers. Most of them were put in the first week, girls had a tendency to just say _give me your phone_ no matter how gay he was acting. Really, with all of his focus on Sasuke, he felt bad. Like he hadn't really met anyone. He knew them okay, had eaten lunch with them a lot, but Sasuke wouldn't sit with them, and so Naruto had tailed him on the occasions Sasuke chose to eat at all. He found about ten numbers of students in his classes: Chouji, Hinata, Ino, Kiba, Sakura, Shikamaru, Shino, who he'd met on the first day. Lee, Neji, Tenten, who he'd only met in his second trimester, and he was fairly sure Lee had put in all of their numbers himself. And Sai, who was literally the weirdest kid he had ever met.

It was a school night. They had school the next day at 7:30 in the morning. Some of them were as young as 15 and others as old as 18.

So what did Naruto do?

He did what any responsible young adult would.

And threw a fucking party.

xx

"Sasuke, come to my office."

A person like Naruto would have laughed, because it sounded like he had a doctor's appointment. Sasuke, however, was not a person like Naruto. Not at all, and his chest filled with a nauseating dread immediately. Their confrontations did not always end the same way. Sometimes, they would be purely verbal, and often, the times in which they started in his father's office would result in it being a purely verbal event. Still, he hated being around in Fugaku in any great amount, but always came when he was called. The way he knocked was vaguely timid, not in any way that a normal person would see, but in a way his father likely recognized. Likely scoffed at in disgust. The door swung open slowly and Sasuke took three steady strides inside, bowing lowly. Respect your elders. Respect your ancestors. Respect was key, and deeply embedded into his culture.

"Sit."

He nodded. Took his place in a chair in front of the desk. He knew from the start this had nothing to do with Itachi telling; Fugaku would have come up to his room for something of that magnitude. The elder man pushed his glasses up to his nose, his eyesight having been slowly failing since he was twenty eight, and flipped through the papers on his desk. Sasuke didn't stare at him (it was impolite to look someone of higher rank in the eye), nor did he stare at the papers (also impolite), but instead fixed his gaze at a plaque on the desk, commemorating Fugaku's accomplishments with the Uchiha Corp. There was a chance he was going to be the next CEO, his mother had told him. Sasuke wondered why it wasn't her, she was far more organized, but the question answered itself. She was a woman, and according to the company's business values, women were not suited to lead. They were suited to be secretaries.

Mikoto was an exception. She was high up on the ladder, but several rungs down from her husband because of her gender. Nobody was meant to see it that way, but Sasuke knew that was it. To the company, it wasn't about sexism. It was about the supposed fact that women were not well enough equipped to lead a team in a fast paced business environment. Japanese women weren't certainly. They were bred too meekly. But the girls in his class, and Sasuke detested admitting it, they were strong. Annoying as hell, chasing him around, confessing love and bringing him lunches and filling his locker with love letters and occasionally naked pictures. But a large portion of them would be drastically more successful than 80% of the women born and raised in Japan.

That was, if they got out soon.

"I understand there is a class trip coming up in October." Sasuke looked up, having been dazing and horrified at himself for doing so in front of his father. It was immensely disrespectful, and Itachi wouldn't have made such a careless error. He forced himself to nod. "Yes. To the hot springs."

"Do you intend to go?" His father's voice was stern, full of disapproval. "Because if you do, you're wasting precious time. Time you need to use to study if you intend to improve your grades." He shuffled through the papers and pushed Sasuke's report card to him, and he dared to glance up. He felt like a child. By a normal parent's standards, though Sasuke was not aware of this, his scores would have been considered exceptional. He had an A, minimum, in everything. And was currently the top of his class. The grading system, however, allowed for pluses and minuses, and out of his seven classes, only five were an A+. The two he had not done as well in were advanced science and mathematics courses that he took with upperclassmen.

"I know. I'm sorry."

"That's not an answer, Sasuke." Fugaku clicked his tongue, eyes narrowing. "Do you or do you not intend to waste your minimal intellectual abilities by going on this trip?"

Sasuke's fists clenched slightly, and he exhaled. "I'm.. required to go. Because I'm the class president."

"Are you." He sounded bored. Uninterested. The fact that his father somehow didn't know that he was the class president made his chest hurt. Another common insult had to do with that Sasuke was one or two years older than most of his classmates. At seventeen, he could be in his final year of classes. Instead, he was in his first year of high school. Not that it had been his fault; he hadn't been entered into kindergarten until he was six, which was responsible for one year, and the other had to do with their move from Korea. They'd arrived in Japan near the end of the third trimester, and the school board had deemed his partial credits from his middle school in Korea to be inadmissible work. He had to repeat the year in Japan before progressing to High School, something his father had been disgusted with. To make up for it, Sasuke had done his best to perfect his Japanese, and entered High School at sixteen. Promptly turned seventeen, and became awkwardly older than his peers.

Sasuke nodded to his not-question solemnly, unfolding and refolding his hands in his lap.

Fugaku set the papers down and looked directly at him. "Who's the foreigner you've been associating with." Sasuke tensed at the question, trying to force his expression into something like calm, his eyes anywhere but his father's face, not so much now out of politeness but out of a need to escape the situation for what it was. "I... go to an international school, everyone is-"

"Do _not_ get smart with me. You are aware of which one I mean."

Sasuke did not flinch, albeit he probably should have. "His name is Naruto. He immigrated from America." One of his knuckles popped and he had to restrain himself to not crack the other nine. Cracking your knuckles or any other part of your body in front of an elder was a sign of deep disrespect, and he didn't miss the disapproving glare his father gave him at the first noise. Fugaku scoffed slightly, taking off his glasses and cleaning them with the cloth he kept at his desk. Everything on it as immaculate and well kept as the rest of the Uchiha home.  
"America? Disgusting country full of people without any culture. Unwilling to learn of the ways of others." Sasuke bit his lip, eyes in his lap. _Just like the Japanese_. "-And only ready to solve problems with heavy military presence and destructive weapons. I thought you had more self respect than to associate with someone of such low class."

Sasuke's teeth dug in deeper.

"Stop doing so."

He looked up. "Doing what?"

Fugaku glared at him, and Sasuke sunk backwards slightly, wanting to both hold his ground and avoid anything further than this. "Keeping company with the American. Cease it immediately, he's rubbing off badly on you and it's a shame to this family."

The words hit Sasuke like an atomic bomb. An eerie flash that could be seen from miles away. A dead silence that lasts for hours that last for seconds. Then, destruction. Caving through him faster than the speed of sound, burning everything apart, leaving nothing sacred. His teeth clenched sharply together and he forced himself to nod. It was not an affirmative. Not really. He detested lying to his father, because Fugaku never left a stone unturned, but this was not something he could say _yes_ to and be honest about. And so he did what he had to do for things to coexist peacefully. "Thank you, Sasuke. You may leave."

xx

Naruto couldn't definitively say his party was out of control until about ten in the evening.

It had been fine. Everything had been fine, at least at first. He'd called everyone, only to be answered with annoyed voices in that _how-dare-you-interrupt-my-ability-to-hold-eight-separate-conversations-by-calling-me_ type of tone, and managed to get a few of them to come over. Neji had plans, big surprise. Shikamaru didn't want to go but Ino was going so he was getting roped into it. Chouji would go if Naruto had something besides the rabbit food Californians were so into. Sakura agreed without question because she hadn't been to a decent party since she moved. Lee screamed through the phone about _YOUTHFUL GATHERINGS!_, which Naruto assumed meant 'Yes, I am very enthusiastic about this!' or 'God no, that is horrific!'. His phone was about four years old and the speaker wasn't clear enough to handle that octave. Tenten agreed because she had nothing better to do, and Neji called back a few minutes later saying he could come. Shino didn't even pick up. Kiba seemed _very_ enthused about the idea, and told him he'd bring stuff over. Hinata stuttered for nearly sixty seconds before finally blurting out an affirmative. And Naruto had _no_ idea if it was just his Japanese translating skills, but he could have sworn Sai said something about him having a small cock before he hung up.

So that was nine. Nine was fine. He'd jogged down to a store down the street, bought some sodas, chips, and a few frozen pizzas. Party food, nothing special. He shut the doors on his parent's room, put away any stuff he wouldn't want damaged (original Woodstock promotional posters from 1969, 1979, 1989, 1994, and 1999, several of them heavily autographed, a first release Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band vinyl, a hemp basket his mother had made and apparently used to carry him around in when he was a baby, sentimental shit like that), and put any loose drugs or underwear where they were supposed to be. Other than that, he didn't make much of a thing of it. After all, it wasn't supposed to be a thing. Just a few people hanging out, eating chips and weird Japanese brand salsa, maybe watching a movie and when going home. No big deal.

Unbeknownst to Naruto, the Universe had other plans. Kiba, Ino, Sakura, and Tenten put messages on their social networking websites telling everyone to go to his party, and then followed it up by sending a mass text message to all of their contacts. From the social network alone, about 2,000 people were made aware of his address and what time to be there. Via phone, about 300 more. After that, anything went. Friends of friends telling their friends who told their friends. And at some point, it wasn't just a party. It ended up a B.Y.O.B. Or at least, that was what Naruto had come to understand, but he didn't know what the actual Japanese translation for _bring your own beer_ was. No, in retrospect, this was absolutely _not_ his fault. It was the fault of Kiba, Ino, Sakura, and Tenten.

But retrospect didn't matter.

At 7:30PM, his original guests started showing up. The nine he'd sanctioned to be there. And for that first half hour, everything was great. They hung out, ate pizza, talked. And that was the kind of interaction Naruto wanted. He learned out of all of them, Lee was the funniest. Nobody else seemed to think so, but Naruto thought he was fucking _brilliant._ Cross a less buffed out Bruce Lee with a four year old's personality and that was Lee. He _hollered_ everything, was exceedingly helpful when it came to carrying shit, and in general, was really, really funny. Ino was probably the prettiest. Which was weird, as she looked nothing like Sasuke, but she _did_ look like the girls from San Francisco. She didn't have that southern California tan, but she had the blonde hair and blue eyes and her body was fucking _incredible_. Neji was serious, to the point that any joking with him was kind of pointless, and Naruto found he was kind of boring as hell. Shikamaru was apparently absolutely brilliant but had no reason or means to apply himself, he'd rather just sleep or watch clouds. Naruto thought this was a _very_ hippie attitude and took an instant affection to him, and if he'd had the chance, would have lent him a mixtape of jam bands the guy would have probably liked.

Chouji was one of those extremely self-conscious chubby guys. And Naruto kind of understood. He'd never had a weight problem because he loved going outside, but Chouji was home Ireland. The Irish liked to drink, eat, and it wasn't the most play-friendly environment to grow up in. Move an Irish guy to Japan, where everything is bite-sized, _especially_ the people, and he would get a complex. Tenten was this hot Chinese chick who hung out with Neji, but Naruto didn't really learn much about her at all. She was confident, but not extremely talkative, but not quiet either. She carried side-conversations with Neji, but didn't address the group much, which he surmised was because she had some kind of an superiority complex. Sakura was the second prettiest, and he liked her more than he liked Ino. She was more relaxed, a bit less sure of herself but seeming pretty much okay with everything. She talked less, but still put a lot into the conversation, Ino just never shut up. He agreed with his original impression of her; if he wasn't _bent_ on Sasuke, he'd be after her.

Hinata confused him. She was hot and cold in the worst kind of way. One moment, she'd be fine, seeming content and smiling quietly the way Japanese chicks always do. The next moment, she'd be having a hot flash so bad that she would bead sweat and get dizzy. Maybe she had a medical condition? He'd thought it might be low blood sugar, so he fed her a lot of food, but it didn't seem to do much good. Kiba, who looked really annoyed every time he doted over her, was generally speaking, pretty cool. He was loud, energized, really liked animals and really liked people. Of everyone, he felt like he could relate to Kiba more. Naruto wasn't chill the way Shikamaru was, he liked to go out and change the world. Make a difference, brick by brick. Kiba wasn't nearly that ambitious, but he was outgoing at nearly Naruto's level. And he liked that.

But around 9:00, people just started showing up. And at first, it had been friends of his guests, people they knew personally and not that many. Twos and threes. But it quickly elevated massively, into waves of people that he didn't even get to answer the door for, that just walked in and set down whatever the hell they had brought until his house looked like a liquor store that only sold bottles about 1/4th of the way full.

By ten, he was fucked.

The house pulsed. That's how loud the bass was, how loud the music was, and how many people were moving. Dancing and drinking and eating his house dry. He'd been presented two options, the first being to resist the flow and try and get everyone out, or go with the flow and know that eventually, they would leave. And of course, the obvious choice was to go with the flow. He knew that if he went with it, it presented quite a few problems. As many problems as if he went against it, but different problems. But Naruto could handle being the guy with the plastic bag for the empty cans and cups, as well as he could handle being the guy who helped wasted lightweights outside the vomit, as well as he could handle being the guy who ran around putting away anything even vaguely in danger of damage in the garage.

Because he could _not_ handle waking up in bed next to someone who looked just like Sasuke, but wasn't. Because there _were_ times where Naruto was very rational, although they were few.

xx

He couldn't count how many stupid texts he'd gotten about Naruto's party. Open door, everyone's going, blah blah blah. He'd heard the first fifteen times. What he hadn't heard was an invitation from Naruto himself, and that irked him. A lot. Sasuke didn't go to parties much, and when he did, it was usually a business party that Fugaku was taking him through at last thought. Itachi was the showcase, not him. And Naruto probably knew Sasuke wouldn't be into it, but normally, he'd at least _ask_. At least _try_ to talk him into it. God, that was fucking annoying.

Uchiha Sasuke had officially gone to bed at ten thirty. But he was awake. It was a bit late to only _now_ be taking a sleeping pill. Especially since tomorrow was Monday and the hangover from it would make it so difficult to function in class. Though apparently, he wouldn't be the only one in his stupid class with a hangover. He rolled onto his side, gripping his phone angrily. He had to set himself apart. When they got to homeroom, Sasuke needed to be the one who wasn't clutching his head and trying to go back to sleep immediately. He was different, and had to act that way. He had to act _better_. And going to his boyfriend's house to get trashed and maybe do something he would seriously regret? That would not be _better_, that would be monumentally _worse_. Itachi wouldn't have done it, certainly. And if Itachi wasn't doing it, it wasn't something to be done. It wasn't something _worth_ doing.

He groaned and sat up. Sasuke hated this level of useless exhaustion. Too tired to work and focus, but too awake to sleep. It was a waste of precious minutes of his life, if one were to assume his life and time were indeed precious. He rubbed his forehead, laying back down and closing his eyes. No sleeping position felt right. His phone buzzed loudly in his hand, and his eyes fluttered open, flipping it open to view it. Not from Naruto. He glared in frustration and tossed it loudly to the floor, the carpet cushioning it from any real damage and the contact mostly silent. Would be silent if it were daytime, when a million distant sounds were always being heard, but at night, the silence was never louder. At night, the siren that was so easy to ignore at three in the afternoon is blaring louder than anything you'd ever heard before.

And then he was in the ocean. The water was warm and salty, splashing against him at a comfortable temperature, everything about it soothing and perfectly clean. All he heard was the water in slow, heavy waves, crashing against one another in a dull roar that was neither distracting nor upsetting. It was calm. He let himself float, toss in the water, never worrying about not being able to breathe or swallowing too much water because that wasn't a factor. He didn't know why it wasn't a factor, but it wasn't. He felt fine. Perfectly hydrated, perfectly comfortable, everything the way that it was supposed to be. The sun was shining, but not hot. Not blaring. Salt water splashed into his eyes, and it didn't hurt, because ocean water wasn't bad. (Yes it was?) But not here, it wasn't.

His mother, father, and brother were on the shore, he knew that. He didn't know how he knew it, only that they were there, and they needed him to come back. That he was supposed to be there too, that they were waiting. Everyone else had spent their time in the water several hours ago, and he hadn't packed up. Vacation was over, they were waiting. That was bad. He rolled onto his stomach and started paddling towards the island he could only vaguely see, more as a concept than as something definitive, but it wasn't getting any closer. They were going to leave without him if he didn't hurry up, and then what would he do? He'd be stuck here. Would that be so bad? Just in this nice water. Never hungry, never thirsty, never tense, never... they were leaving. They were turning around and going back home. He tried to call out, but in the water, he couldn't talk. He wasn't under it, but he was in it, and in this water, he was mute.

He didn't know why. It just was

He paddled forward harder, trying to catch up to them, but the water kept pushing him back. The water was coming from the shore, to the ocean, instead of from the ocean to the shore. (But that makes no sense...) He wasn't going to make it, they were getting in the car. They were going home. The blue sky didn't seem so inviting anymore, it was twisting into a nasty green-black, and the water felt colder. Why were they just.. _leaving_? He felt something against his foot and his heart thudded violently hard against his chest, so much so that it hurt, and he felt cold, unimaginable, completely irrational fear fill him to the core. They were going to leave him here and it wasn't always so nice. He was going to drown, once the storm came (What storm?). And then everything would fall apart, and he'd have to live with the sea animals until his body decayed.

He didn't want to live with the fish. He kicked hard, paddling towards the shore against the ocean, but the car was driving away, and his chest hurt so badly now, like he was having a heart attack, like his heart was being eaten-

Sasuke's eyes snapped open. There was noise. He couldn't recognized it at first, his chest throbbing and each of his limbs still feeling independent of his muscles. He forced his concentration back into reality, sitting up sharply just to counter his bizarre dream, eyes working into blurry focus down to his phone. It was ringing. His gaze snapped to the clock that sat next to his bed. 5:23AM. He clenched his teeth and forced himself out of bed, more of a wobble than anything else, snatching up the phone and pressing it to his ear.

"Hello." Any American would have answered screaming something like 'Jesus, _what_?', but Sasuke's temperament was secondary to habit, and if he wasn't the level of tired he was currently, he probably would have bowed on impulse, regardless of that he was speaking on the telephone.

"Sasuke!"

For a minute, he didn't even recognize the voice. "Speaking."

"Sasuke, shit, it's me!"

_Oh_. He exhaled a breath, the anger hardly receding from him but evolving into something different, more like a vague irritation than rage at anyone daring to stir him from what precious little sleep he afforded himself. "What is it?"

"Omigodomigodomigod _fucking_ fuck, okay, do not be mad because if you get mad everything will just get worse by a million and they're already really fucking bad because holy _shit_, I have no fucking idea where in the whole suh-_mokin'_ universe I am right now, and it's dark as shit and shady as hell and there aren't any goddamn street signs and I can't find a fucking train station and every time I find a map, it's all shit I haven't seen before and omigod _Sasuke_-" Sasuke processed not a word of any of this initial rant. The amount of energy put into every word had him at least out of bed, rubbing his eyes and yawning so deeply his jaw popped, because the urgency made him understand there was _importance_, but it was hard to come out of. Hard to keep up a constant three way translation. Naruto's Japanese to real Japanese to Korean, which was what he understood with any genuine fluency. He rubbed his eyes, trying to force his attention "-and I don't even know how it happened, either, I mean, she was totally there, Ino was _totally_ there, I remember that, but somehow I ended up-" Ino? Yamanaka Ino, he meant? What the hell was he even talking about?

"Naruto, stop."

The blabbering on the other end of the line halted abruptly.

"Good. I want you to tell me what your predicament is in a fashion that is coherent."

"...right. Okay. 'm sorry. I'm lost. I was having a party at my house and now I'm here and everyone's gone. And I guess I'm still in Tokyo, because there aren't any street signs, but I don't know where. I don't recognize shit and a street over are a bunch of hookers and I know this is _Japan_, but I've never seen that many hookers concentrated in one place, 'side from your mom's room, BADUMCHING, _BELIEVE IT_- wait, no, nevermind, serious shit. Uhhh."

"Describe what you see."

xx

Naruto did not get to go home and go to sleep. Based off his vague collection of landmarks, Sasuke found him on an incredibly dodgy side area in the Shikoku ward, and although Naruto talked the entire way back to his home – which he also gave terrible directions for – no genuine conversation was had. Although Sasuke listened with a patience that – truth be told – made him quite a bit less comfortable than if Sasuke had unloaded onto him a screaming fit like a _girl_, Naruto only really had enough time to clean up the main living areas (his parents had gotten home, walked _around_ the disaster that was once their beautifully _them_ little nest, and crashed to sleep) while Sasuke showered and packed them boxed lunches. It was the first time Sasuke had been inside his home, and by about 6AM that morning, even Naruto's mouth which would otherwise be _incapable_ of stopping finally slowed to a halt. By 6:30, after eating waffles Sasuke made strangely (some weird Korean recipe or something), his teeth began to lock up in that way that meant he had been awake far too long, and by 6:45, he started to see the little white sparks that mean you need to sleep. The sparks are a fairly common sleep-deprivation hallucination (or at least, he assumed it was one, could just be an eye thing) and he'd never met anyone who hadn't seen them, and he would have struck up a conversation with Sasuke, only Sasuke's teeth looked too and his eyes were focused – after two cups of coffee – on the road, bloodshot but alert.

When he finally sat down, he was too tired to sleep. Uzumaki Naruto, too tired to sleep through first period, that would be like saying _Shikamaru_ stayed up through his first block. Everybody who had been there – which seemed to be everyone _except_ Sasuke – were either sleeping or exceedingly groggy, every character so sloppily written that it would change into a different one, every heavily-accented voice coming out in slurred, badly spoken Japanese. Everyone except Sasuke. Sasuke, who was very quiet but as studious as always, head aching and back tensed in the same fashion it had when Naruto had first met him. A tension he hadn't seen in a long time, come to think of it, and it concerned him. It concerned him more than what his parents would do to him when he got home (which wasn't saying much; they tell him to clean whatever mess remained up into spotlessness and then pretend to ground him for a few days, but so few of Naruto's possessions were even ground-worthy that there wasn't much they could take away from him).

He felt strange. Transient, almost. In a weird place with Sasuke because he couldn't tell how angry with him Sasuke still was, if he'd been completely forgiven or if the Uchiha was even more infuriated with him. In a weird place with himself, because Naruto _loved_ life and the idea of not being able to remember something – anything, even if it was just a dream – had a tendency to really upset him because life was an extraordinarily precious thing and every moment he lived was a moment he was taking over the world, inch by inch. Every moment he was with Sasuke, he was conquering himself, every moment he was with Sasuke his emotions went into hyperdrive and if Sasuke rejected him it _hurt_, when they kissed it felt like being on the beaches in California, where it wasn't humid and the sea breeze kept it cool and right as the sun was setting, everything was perfect, _everything_ maintained its sanctity and _that_ was what it felt like to kiss Sasuke. To love Sasuke this much, this badly. The word came to him without much thought, that he _loved_ Sasuke, of course he _loved_ Sasuke, but as he stared – dazed and exhausted – at the Uchiha's back, watching his shoulders tense and un-tense with his breathing, god, he felt warm and relaxed and _home_, home on every level that he could be. Even if Sasuke hated him one seat ahead, in Naruto's seat, it was really okay. Even if Sasuke wasn't okay, and Naruto wasn't okay, _they_ were okay.

He never learned how he got where he did, although he probably could have collected enough stories to eventually figure it out. Nor did he ever pursue to learn what happened after his memory faded; he could have slept with some cute little Japanese girl and he wouldn't know, didn't _mind_ not knowing. Because even if that upset him, even if he was in this disturbed, self-righteous little country where they put Mayonnaise on pizza and detested the fact that he was so _purely_ foreign, it didn't matter. Why the hell should he care? If he didn't fit in, boo-hoo. Nobody ever fits in properly, that's life. If he had to mail-order all of his clothes because all the Japanese shirts had narrow shoulders, shoes stopped at 25 centimeters, and jeans were too tight in the crotch, it just meant Naruto was bigger than them in _every_ regard and he didn't exactly mind. As long as he had this _thing_, this fucking _succubus_ sitting in front of him.

He smiled to himself, looking down at the graph paper he was supposed to be duplicating kanji on and picking up his pen for the first time all morning. His Japanese was terrible, certainly, but his Korean was exponentially worse – something he'd been trying to learn a little bit of because (and the reasoning behind it is undeniably stupid) Sasuke probably moaned in his first language and Naruto wanted to know what the hell he was saying if he started babbling in bubble-speak. He called it bubble-speak because many Korean characters had circles that reminded him of bubbles, and as per typical, Sasuke both did not find this funny and had called him stupid when Naruto explained this logic. Still, he carefully wrote in large Korean lettering that took up about 8 lines of graph, exerting more concentration in this moment than he had all morning before folding it over one and slipping it onto Sasuke's desk, tucking it under his elbow.

It was returned to him a few moments later without written response.

Naruto frowned. "Hey, Sasuke..."

"I know." Sasuke spoke in curt English, his accent hanging softly towards the way he said _I_ more as Ah-ii, rather than just I.

"Do you-"

"No."

Naruto's ears seemed to flatten to his head, but he couldn't help smiling. Tugged at Sasuke's left hand and laced the fingers, leaning forward so his forehead rested in the small of his back as Sasuke resumed to his schoolwork, and the exchange was subtle, almost too subtle to be _them_ but it was, and they were. And Sasuke _was_ still mad at him, he could feel it dripping off of him in thick waves, but he wasn't angry enough. And Naruto probably wasn't entirely forgiven just yet, but it was okay. Everything was okay.

And if it wasn't, he would fix it until it was.

xx

Okay, yes. This was kind of a filler chapter. Ever since my friends passed, I have had SERIOUS writer's block for this and all fics. I finally regained a little drive and managed to put this out, and hopefully I'll be able to keep working on it with some amount of consistency. To all my loyal readers; thank you for reviewing and such :( It really does help to spur my creativity


	14. Wined and Dined

_**Brain Damage  
**__Chapter Fourteen_

Naruto found that once he'd breached the two week mark in September, he liked Japanese weather, for what felt like the first time in ages. It was finally beginning to dip down to a manageable sixty or seventy degrees every day, and while still very humid, it was becoming much more like the weather at home. His parent's business was prospering, gaining an almost cult status and hosting gigs for musicians, writers, and the occasional comedian that was bringing in a real profit for the first time since they moved in. For the same reason, Naruto has escalated from helping out around the store to working there about twenty to thirty hours a week, something Sasuke was okay with since he was so busy with after school studies and activities regardless. Although his father rarely bothered to show up at his track meets, if he ever _did_ bother to go, he wouldn't want Naruto to be there. He was too easy to recognize, way too loud, and something Sasuke had promised to not see again.

The same sort of way he'd promised to never talk to Gaara again.

Since his last letter, he hadn't received a response. And he'd stopped looking for one. Miss Choi always left his letters in the same place, and she never asked any questions. If he'd received something, she'd have given it to him. The burden that was Gaara, which had convened like a possessive spirit weighing on his shoulders, had finally given way and everything felt much lighter. For the first time in his life, he was really considering burning all of the previous letters as well, destroying the last mementos of a part of his life he was more than happy to be rid of. Naruto was so different than Gaara, and so different from Sasuke, and that seemed to be the best reason for them to be together. To fit together. Their time apart seemed to be good for Sasuke's health as well – forgiving him came much easier when he wasn't being chased all the time.

The small amount of time he spent with Itachi indicated that everything was alright. His brother spent most of his time in his room, and when he went out he would stay out for long periods of time, at least ten or twelve hours. But on the occasions they crossed paths – the occasional meal or seeing each other on the staircase – Itachi didn't pay him much mind or give him the kinds of looks he was expecting. Like Naruto, his parents were working more than ever as the tourism season was finally over and the numbers were coming in. The few times he did see his mother, she looked a tad less gorgeous with her exhaustion, dark circles underneath her dark eyes and her lips a little thinner than usual. The two times he'd seen his father all month, the man had been at the very end of his rope, and Sasuke had stayed out of his way.

The fact that he was managing to find time to juggle all of his responsibilities was truly incredible if one assumed he was getting the appropriate amount of sleep every night, and unfortunately, he was. His time with Naruto was dwindling to a smaller allotment each day as he balanced classwork, homework, cram work, track, and photography, and it was slowly becoming uncomfortable for him. He assumed that Naruto disliked not being around him as much, because every time they were apart the blonde ended up doing something incredibly stupid, but Sasuke had never really _shared_ the sentiment before. In fact, he usually cherished the moments when Naruto wasn't blabbing to him or feeling him up in public but things… had changed.

It was almost a kind of insecurity. And it didn't really go to say that Naruto _didn't _touch him, he most certainly did. He just… did it less. Naruto had begun concentrating more in class, and working with more vigor on his assignments in just about every area. Sasuke didn't know what the motivation was – perhaps he genuinely just wanted to do well, but he doubted it. Naruto had never had that kind of intrinsic motivation before. And Sasuke hadn't made any kind of deal with him either, something like "You make straight A's and I'll do (something lewd and unmentionable)". Not only was Naruto touching him less, but since the party, Naruto's popularity with other students had blown out of proportion. Although the blonde wanted to be around Sasuke above anyone else, if Sasuke denied him twice, he would actually leave. Go spend time with the growing group of girls who seemed to fancy him, which _really_ pissed Sasuke off.

He didn't really know what he was feeling. On the one hand, he was happy. He was doing better in his classes than he ever had, and next year, he could possibly test out of the international school and enter a _real_ school with students who could actually communicate to one another. A school that didn't have to cancel every holiday because it was too _denominational_, a school that didn't have Saudi Arabian royalty attending and thus had to bulletproof every window in the building. It was the best international school, certainly, but going to the best international school only _meant_ something if you were planning to return to your home country. Being Japanese born but raised in Korea…? It was insulting. And there was no way he was going to get any respect or get into the best schools if he was stuck in a place like this.

Things were different. Uncomfortable, even.

xx

Naruto wasn't nearly as conflicted as Sasuke was, but hot damn, he was getting kinda fuckin' emo. No lies. September was hell month. Yeah, the weather was wonderful, finally coming down in temperature and the humidity vanishing, and since Japan was an island with the sea breezes always coming in, it _really_ was starting to feel like San Francisco. And he loved that. But everywhere he looked were reminders that this was _not_ San Francisco, and the only thing that ever kept him from feeling homesick seemed to never be around these days.

God, he was in love. He was in the best kind of love, the truest love he'd ever felt, a love so strong he didn't need to act on it half as much as he used to because it was so _perfect_ the way that it was. He'd be sweeping the store, getting ready for the next stampede of people to destroy it again, and he'd see something that reminded him of Sasuke and _bam_, it was like getting hit by a truck, but it was a really really nice truck that made his legs feel like jelly. Kind of like they did right after having an orgasm. That was his life, all the time, anytime he was reminded of Sasuke. So why was he depressed? Because he was in this weird kind of limbo and it was really making him do stupid shit.

He wasn't really sure if Sasuke was still angry with him or not. As a general rule, Sasuke was always upset with him, but they had good points and bad points. Good points would be the kind of angry that passed easily, that was very temporary and almost just a part of being around Sasuke. Bad points would be when Sasuke would hit him and he would feel the malice in it, or when he would glare and Naruto would feel it in his guts. And he'd had plenty of those moments. He'd also had plenty of moments where Sasuke wasn't angry at all, when they were in bed together kissing, or in the car arguing about music and art, or when Sasuke was explaining things that were inherently Japanese that Naruto simply didn't get. These moments made Naruto fucking _warm_, giddy like a child, struck stupid and not really aware of what was going on.

Right now, he didn't really know where he was in the balance of things. Sasuke had increased his workload to an incredible level, so much work that for the first time, Naruto wasn't really sure if the Uchiha would actually be able to handle it. Sasuke's patience seemed to always be at its breaking point, and so Naruto couldn't pester him too badly. As a result, he found himself concentrating a little harder on his school work, and on the occasions he did touch him, he took care in making sure it was a little less skeevy and a little more like a boyfriend would. And for once, Sasuke didn't seem _outwardly_ upset with him, but something was off, and he didn't like it.

Three and a half weeks into September, when it had actually gotten a bit nippy and he resolved to start wearing slightly warmer clothes, Sasuke came into class wearing a sling. It wasn't the kind of sling that attracted a lot of attention, the kind that screamed, LOOK AT ME, I HAVE BEEN INJURED! His arm wasn't in a cast, either, nor was there a band from the emergency room on either one of his wrists. No, it was just a sling, an ordinary sling you could buy from a drug store, and it afflicted Sasuke's non-dominant arm, so he acted as if everything was alright and that it really, _really_ wasn't a big deal. But Naruto's blue eyes had lit up like a Christmas tree – a very horrified, slightly sick Christmas tree, and said a little too loudly:

"OMIGOD WHAT HAPPENED."

Sasuke cringed. "You're loud. It's early."

"SASUKE, SERIOUSLY."

"I tripped over a hurdle in track. I looked like an idiot. Please make me relive it again, it's just what I was hoping for this morning."

And there it was, that malice, the malice that made Naruto's ears flatten to his head like a scolded pup. "Can I look at it? I can give you something that will make it hurt less. Why don't you have a cast on? I.." He paused, and Sasuke was still looking at him, waiting for him to finish. Naruto smiled a little. "I'm sorry you got hurt. I love you so much. You don't even know, Heartbreak. You're my life. And not in the weird way that people say in movies so that the girl will finally sleep with them. In the way that I seriously only get out of bed every morning to come see you. You are so awesome and you are so funny and even when you're mad, I just can't help but think about how much I really, really like you. I can't even put it into words. And it really sucks! You know? Japanese really, really sucks. In English, you can be more articulate than in almost any other language. You can express _ideas_ in English in ways you can't express in Japanese. We've got almost a million words! I can't speak this stupid language well enough to tell you how much you mean to me and that makes me fucking _crazy_!"

Sasuke stared at him for a moment. As did their entire class. Which had been staring at them before because Sasuke came in wearing a sling, but they were now far more interested in Naruto's outburst.

"…uh. Yeah. _Clearly_."

Naruto looked up at Sasuke and let out a nervous, but genuinely amused laugh.

"Hey, can we go on a date? A real date? Dinner and everything?"

Sasuke, who'd been trying to hold onto his cool exterior, looked a little uncomfortable. "Can we talk about this later?"

"No, we can't." Naruto was looking at him with a sort of resolute urgency. "Because you're always busy and you never talk to me and when class is out, I have to go work my ass off at the stupid store because some stupid indie singer who thinks he's so cool for singing in English – WHY, by the way, do the Japanese sing in English when they _DO NOT KNOW ENGLISH_, seriously? Heartfully singing _Lover, lover, it's cashew time_ doesn't make sense unless- you know, nevermind, anyway, this stupid indie singer who's all OH YEAH, CASHEW TIME, LOOK AT MY _FEELINGS_ is coming and he's apparently hot shit even though he can only play two chords on his stupid guitar, so I'll be working until close and then two hours after that, and by then you'll be asleep, and then this will repeat tomorrow and we will never go on a date and then HO, GODZILLA WILL ATTACK because nobody will be expecting it and THAT'S WHEN HE BREACHES THE TERRITORY, and then we'll all die and everything will suck so **WHEN ARE YOU FREE**."

And then something happened that Naruto did not expect. It was very subtle, something that could only be seen in Sasuke's gorgeous features, but it was… calm. A complete disregard for the stares of those around them. Uchiha Sasuke, one of the biggest prudes he'd ever met by _nature_, just… didn't care. And if he wasn't so happy for this small blessing, it would have unnerved him. The sudden change of character. It would have upset him, but instead, just seeing that lack of care, and then the way Sasuke snorted and brushed his bangs out of his face… everything felt fine.

"…let me look in my planner. I'll get back to you at lunch."

xx

The student council wrapped up the session and Sasuke was feeling pretty accomplished, if he did say so himself. The freshman class trip was polished and primed, and every rough edge and loose end was buffed and serged. All of the money was accounted for and locked safely away in the treasury, soon to be delivered for deposits. Every teacher of a freshman class was providing their services as chaperones. Almost the entire Inn had been reserved for two person rooms, and meals had been pre-purchased from the Inn and several restaurants around town. Tours, museum tickets, and hiking guides had been booked. It had been a long, tedious process, but everything was settled at last. It was going to be a fun trip even if everything went wrong, and they were going to do a lot of hiking, see a lot of historical sites, and take plenty of onsen baths.

There were a few freshmen who hadn't been lucky enough to either scrape up the money for the trip or, in general, have permission to go via their families. Some did have permission to go, but weren't allowed to take public baths because it was against their religion, or simply too scandalizing for their fifteen to eighteen year old to do. Sasuke pitied them a little, but not too much, since if there had been many more students, they would have had to use two Inns and that would have been twice as much hassle shoved onto his shoulders.

Today, however, today was good. Today was Saturday. Saturday, as he'd promised Naruto not long ago, was one of His days. He'd gone to class, then to cram school, then to his student council meeting, and now he was going home. Saturday was the only day of the week he did _not_ do homework, and this was the day he was going on their date. As Naruto called it, a _real_ date. In Sasuke's opinion, they'd been on plenty of real dates before, and honestly he was a little miffed that Naruto didn't think they were dates. Naruto's explanation was that a Real Date meant Naruto picked him up and then paid for everything and basically treated him like a woman, as he was prone to do. This plan had a flaw or two – for example, Naruto couldn't actually come pick him up. Even if the blonde _had_ a means of retrieving him that wasn't a bicycle and then several different means of public transportation, Fugaku would murder both of them if Naruto knocked on the Uchiha mansion's door. So instead, Sasuke was meeting him there, at a restaurant he'd never heard of somewhat late in the evening.

He took a shower when he arrived home, taking an amount of care in cleaning himself that he didn't _usually_ take (as in, an extra twenty minutes with a bar of soap that was slowly decreasing in size) and he dressed plainly, but formally. He doubted Naruto would wear anything too special – the most formal thing he'd _ever_ seen Naruto in was his school uniform, and that really didn't say much. If the blonde did have a suit lying around, it was probably day glow orange, or white that he had tie-dyed. There were very few times Sasuke genuinely didn't want to be seen in public with him, but the day Naruto wore a tie-dye suit, or god forbid a tuxedo, Sasuke would probably break up with him on principle.

Probably.

He had an hour or so to spare before he needed to leave, so he glided downstairs for a sandwich to tide himself over, as his hunger was already making him a bit lightheaded. To his surprise, the kitchen was occupied, not by his parents or any of the maids but by Shisui, who was standing next to the oven, his long, curly hair tied up and out of his way. It looked like he was stir-frying noodles and vegetables, and as he drew closer he noticed that he had a pair of earbuds in his ears, accounting for the slight sway in hips. Sasuke sat down at the kitchen table, quietly, the task of making a sandwich one he could easily do _around_ Shisui, but he didn't want to. There was a certain privacy he took when working in the kitchen, and he didn't like other people to be around.

Sasuke took out his phone and exchanged a couple of text messages with Naruto, but quickly grew bored of it as he recalled that Naruto seemed to have an innate ability to _not_ make sense in the art of the written word. If it was a statement as simple as _I'll be there at 8 o'clock_, he seemed to do fine, but anything more advanced that and Naruto dissolved into abbreviations.

"Ah! Sasuke-kun! My lord, you scared me, I didn't see you come in."

Shisui was holding one very _large_ plate of omelets, bacon, fruit, and something else he couldn't quite identify, and another plate of the same items but on a slightly smaller scale. "Sorry, Shisui." He didn't really sound sorry, more apathetic than anything else. Sasuke didn't have much of a relationship with his elder cousin, the extent of his feelings was slightly negative for stealing Itachi away from him at such a young age, so consistently. Shisui had gone on to go to Tokyo University and got a rather useless degree in art, seeing as his cousin had no job to speak of, and was supposedly living off inheritance money. Fugaku spent a lot of time ranting about him, because although Sasuke only disliked him a little, his father _hated_ him. Which really didn't seem to stop Itachi at all. Maybe that was why Itachi didn't tell on him to their father, because his relationship with Shisui was as forbidden as Sasuke's relationship with Naruto.

Well, perhaps not _as_ forbidden, but bad enough.

Shisui left after he prepared a tray, bidding Sasuke goodbye and giving him the privacy he needed to make his food. Although the smell of the meal Shisui had made only caused his hunger to increase, he had to save room for the meal Naruto was planning to pay for (though Sasuke was taking his wallet just in case). He prepared a sandwich and microwaved it for a few seconds to get it warm, taking it and a soda upstairs to his bedroom. The house was appropriately silent again, its gravity making the noise all the noisier and the silence all the more quiet. He ate slowly, killing time, and when he was finished he made sure he still looked decent and hadn't accumulated too must of a mess on his clothes.

He left the house at around seven thirty, and found that although the restaurant wasn't really _close_, he saved a lot of time looking up the address and putting it into his GPS, rather than trying to follow directions, and when he arrived, he was a little early. Naruto wasn't there, because the idiot _never_ got anywhere early and Sasuke checked to see if he'd been smart enough to get a reservation so Sasuke could sit down, but no luck with that, either. Granted, it didn't look like the kind of restaurant you would _need_ a reservation for. It wasn't an upscale place, necessarily, not the kind of place you would need to dress up for and not the kind of place you would be free of screaming children at, but it wasn't cheap, either. They served a wide variety of foods, but seemed to specialize in different types of grilled fish, and it didn't take too long for Naruto to arrive.

To his surprise, the blonde cleaned up pretty well. His hair was unruly as ever and he still stuck out like a sore thumb, as tall as he was, but he was wearing a neutral long sleeved shirt and a pair of khaki pants. The more Sasuke stared, the more intrigued and attracted to him he was, and he flushed a bit when Naruto caught sight of him and smiled, jogging to his side. "Hey, Sasuke! Sorry I'm kinda late, the buses weren't moving fast 'cuz of a traffic jam. I'll get our table…"

xx

This was going well. Naruto was actually really pleased with himself. For one, Sasuke was really, _really_ hot. He was always hot, but he looked much more attractive under dim light in clothes that actually fit him, versus ultra-fucking-florescent in a school uniform maybe a size or two too big. You'd figure with rich parents like his, the kid would be able to afford a uniform suited to his size, but no. In normal clothes, however, Sasuke went from 'incredibly attractive in every way that sent Naruto into a sex crazed spiral that kept him up through all hours of the night furiously, but quietly, masturbating' to… whatever the hell was more intense than that. That was what this was, being with Sasuke right now.

Sasuke seemed hungry, because he ordered a hugeass meal when the time came around, and Naruto _never_ saw Sasuke really eat anything larger than the palm of his hand. He didn't know if it was because the Uchiha was watching his weight (and Naruto sincerely hoped this wasn't the case, considering he kind of wanted Sasuke's ass to be a bit fatter, as there really wasn't anything happening there), or if it was because he was just never really hungry, or _maybe_ it was because his stomach was so tuned to only taking in super-healthy food that if he ate too much, he always got sick. Whatever his reasons, they weren't applying tonight. Naruto _always_ ate a lot, because he was super active and had a metabolism that burned calories like _nobody's_ fuckin' business, and so for a while, while they were eating, they were basically silent. It wasn't an awkward silence, or necessarily an I'm-really-hungry-and-eating-so-fuck-off-until-I'm-satisfied silence either. It was comfortable. And Naruto was really happy for that.

They talked, too. About everything. Sasuke was still as reserved and pissy as he always was, but he laughed too, if Naruto said something dumb enough. They talked about class, and he learned Sasuke was – huge surprise – doing very well in all of his subjects, curricular and extracurricular. They talked about the trip, and Naruto got a more specific gist of everything they were doing.

"Roommates?"

He grinned, a bit skeevy.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Yes. To save money."

"Roommates, like, tiny little room together after long naked baths together?"

Sasuke paused, thoughtfully. "I think, after you go to sleep, I'm going to put mousetraps all around my bed. And just see what happens."

Naruto laughed heartily at this.

They talked about the store. About Sasuke's family, which Naruto learned were even more never-there than they ever were. They talked about lots of things, and it was _comfortable_. For the first time in a long time, _they_ were comfortable together, in their way. In the way that meant Sasuke was constantly putting Naruto down for being idiotic and Naruto taunted Sasuke for being effeminate and at the end of the day, they were together. The way they ought to be. According to Naruto, the way they were meant to be, but Sasuke didn't buy into it.

"Love at first sight? Che, you're so gullible."

"WHAT- Gullible _how_, what does that even mean.."

"_Love_ probably doesn't even exist." Sasuke put down his fork and placed his finger in the center of his perfect, flawless forehead. "Everything we feel physically and emotionally is all in your brain. It's a series of firings within your synapses. Everything you find attractive and unattractive is purely psychological. Everything you touch, feel, taste, hear, and smell? Psychological. Your desire to eat, which most human beings consider to be innate? It's psychological. Desire for sex? Easily altered with a little brain surgery. Love doesn't exist. Insanity exists."

"Are you saying they're the same thing?"

"I'm saying they could be."

"Oh, bull_shit_, Heartbreak. Not only does love exist, but so does love at first sight. I don't care if you toss all the big words around like you're some kind of Freud, 'cuz you're not. True love _definitely_ exists. If you'd wake up, you'd realize not only does it exist, but you're experiencing it right now." Naruto grinned his cheeky, shit-eating grin. "Get it?"

"_Wow_, you are conceited."

"But I'm right, so it's okay."

They left when the restaurant closed, the manager looking at them with irritation, as if daring to ask for anything more. Naruto paid, and Sasuke figured it would be just as easy to drive him home, since – although it wasn't on the way – it didn't involve Naruto going anywhere near _his_ house and it meant the blonde got to save himself an hour or so _not_ getting lost on the subways at night. As they walked to Sasuke's car, however, the same sort of automatic, driven impulse seemed to be wordlessly crossing both of their minds, because instead of unlocking the front door, Sasuke unlocked the back and Naruto pulled him inside. Their mouths connected instantly, a greedy, but passionate sort of kiss, not an awkward collision but fitting together well.

The tension that had been growing in Naruto's stomach was relieving slightly. It was a tension that festered like a virus, growing and infecting him whenever properly stimulated. Sasuke's _anger_ stimulated it, his cruelty and his rage and his disappointment, these things made Naruto so tense and depressed it was a miracle he got up in the morning – but he did. Naruto was a fucking ray of sunshine. But the tension was uncoiling and everything felt better, pressed close to Sasuke and connected at the mouth. The brunette even took the initiative to open his mouth first, which was pleasantly surprising, Sasuke's tongue running over his lips and into his mouth. He pressed his hand to the car's seat, supporting himself, kissing him deeply and rolling them together in a slow grind that made the bottom of his stomach drop out and heat rush through him.

But he didn't overdo it. Not yet, anyway. It was too _nice_, just kissing him, just admiring every aspect that was _Sasuke_, his Sasuke, whose mouth was hot and he wasn't breathing through his nose enough and his arms were shaking a little bit, trying to keep himself up straight. It was quiet in the car, nearly silent except for the intimate exchanges of breath and shifting of their figures, and as the car's overhead light went out, they were cast into something like darkness. Dark enough to not attract attention to themselves in the nearly empty parking lot, but Tokyo was _never_ dark, and so there was plenty of colored light casting over both of them.

Naruto ran his hands over Sasuke's stomach, careful of his injured arm that the both of them were avoiding putting any pressure on, the erection he'd been fighting all night finally getting to a point where he couldn't do anything about it. It was _very_ there, and he shivered, rubbing his legs together as Sasuke broke their mouths apart. The Uchiha has panting for breath, like he'd forgotten how to kiss, and Naruto let out a nervous laugh, blushing. There was a pregnant pause where they stared at one another before Sasuke pulled him in again, kissing him feverishly, and God it was so liberating. He felt like, for the first time in a very _long_ time, that this was Sasuke's decision. Sasuke's doing. As much as he concealed it, Naruto hated always being the initiator. It made him a little insecure, or as insecure as Naruto could possibly feel, because it sent a message like Sasuke was never willing to touch him. Like it was never his idea. To Naruto, who spent hours masturbating to just the idea of him, who could barely contain himself whenever he saw him, the idea of that not being requited even a little was… unsettling.

Sasuke's good arm wrapped around him, fingers digging into the hair at the back of his neck, and it was electric, nearly making Naruto moan. Any open space between them quickly vanished, and Naruto's hands ran all over him, squeezing his hips and his ass, and Sasuke was letting him. Sasuke wanted it. The thought made Naruto's heart pound viciously against his ribcage, and he moaned into his mouth, running his hands over the underside of Sasuke's thighs and _grinding_ their groins together, slow and deep in a way that aroused him terribly. Sasuke's lips pursed sharply together, his nostrils flaring and the slightest noise stopping in his throat, but he was hard and Naruto could feel it. Time had _never_ been slower, and nothing had _ever_ felt better than this.

He jumped a little, in shock, when Sasuke broke their kiss again and moved his lips to his throat, teeth digging into his neck and sucking thickly, enough to leave a dark mark. Naruto moaned low and delightedly; biting wasn't usually his thing but Sasuke could do anything he wanted and it would be enough to make him cum, given time. He ground them together deeply, thick with friction that made him dizzy, made Sasuke dizzy from the look of him, and he felt a strange sort of pride with it. Their erections rubbed together through their clothes in a way that so intimate, so _close_ Naruto could barely contain himself, and Sasuke groaned, head falling back slightly. This was so intense, he could barely keep his vision straight, but when Naruto leaned in again he kissed him slower, hands running all over Sasuke's figure.

He moaned a little, open palm running down Sasuke's stomach over his crotch, hand molding over his cock, and the retaliation he had – however sadly – come to expect never arrived. The Uchiha's hips canted a little, out of surprise, but he didn't protest at all – instead he groaned into Naruto's mouth and twined his tongue more urgently. Naruto couldn't believe it, this _had_ to be some cruel dream, but it wasn't. The more and more they touched, the more he became convinced this was actually happening. He unbuttoned Sasuke's pants despite his better judgment, pushing them down his hips a few inches, the hem of his underwear showing if Naruto had been looking, but he wasn't. His eyes were closed in a serene, breathy sort of kiss, a little wet but keeping them together like they were conjoined at the tongue, and _fuck_, this was becoming unbearable. He loved it but it was both extremely over stimulating and painfully unsatisfying.

And without warning, Sasuke pushed him back a few inches, breathing hard.

"H-hold on." _Jesus_. "I'm not- _We're_ not having sex. We're not having sex tonight, and we're not in the back of my car in an empty parking lot outside of a restaurant."

Naruto let out the most exhausted laugh, looking him over. He had never wanted anything this badly, it was fucking _unbearable_. "Yeah. We're not." Sasuke relaxed a little, and Naruto kissed him sweetly, both of his cheeks, his forehead, and his mouth. "Can I just… fix it for you?"

Sasuke didn't understand what he meant. Japanese was such a cruelly vague language, but maybe it was because he was so dazed that he just nodded, not really paying proper attention to him. Naruto's hands moved to the waist of his pants and pushed them down, suddenly, along with his underwear, just far enough to expose him on Sasuke jolted at once, going rigid when Naruto's hand wrapped around his cock, thumb rubbing over the tip slowly. He felt frozen to the spot, hands clenched sharply. "Can I? You'll like it, I promise. And if you want me to stop, I will." That, Sasuke understood. And as he weighed his options, he did what any adolescent male would do: he nodded. And he relaxed a little, watching him, as Naruto pumped him back and forth with his fist. The blonde was examining him curiously, almost invasively, and it wasn't so much that he didn't mind but that he was in a position to let Naruto do it the way he wanted to do it.

Naruto hunched down a little, examining him closer, kissing the tip of his cock in a way that made Sasuke's hips jolt sharply, independent of the rest of him, and there was already pre-cum beading thickly at the tip of him. It was a bitter taste, borderline salty, not the worst thing he'd tasted but hardly the most pleasant, but Naruto really didn't mind. He ran his tongue in flat circles over the head, dipping under it and dragging it slowly across the sensitive skin, testing for reactions, all of which were fundamentally pleasant. Sasuke was a virgin, he could tell. And a virgin to this. He seemed way too… pleasantly surprised, would probably be the best way to describe his expression. Pleasantly surprised and a little stunned. He ran his tongue back over, digging it into the slit, making Sasuke's legs twitch involuntarily and a startled moan spill out of him. He must look so cute naked, Naruto thought rather dazedly, twirling his tongue. He'd nearly seen every part of him at this point, and Naruto loved them all, and in his head as a single piece, he just seemed… cute. Very, very cute.

Sasuke felt the control leaving him with every swipe of Naruto's tongue. This was almost unfair, for how good it felt, little stimulations that made it feel like his body was melting bit by bit and _mm_, he was so warm, it was too warm, he needed to open a window but his arms were locked into place and he couldn't move. He could only… feel. And it felt really nice. He groaned softly, head resting against the car window, as Naruto took him in a few inches into his mouth, and it was such a deliciously bizarre sensation that his whole body involuntarily twitched – including his cock. Naruto grinned, watching him, tongue moving all over and sucking him slow, deep into his throat. One of his arms managed to unlock and it settled itself at the top of Naruto's head, running his fingers through the blonde hair, occupying himself as his lips pursed tightly together and his toes curled up in his shoes.

Naruto pulled up, slow and vacuum tight, and bobbed all the way back down again, swallowing him completely. It felt incredible. Sasuke tried to hold it back a little, that feeling of undoing, of being undone, not wanting to cum so quickly but if Naruto kept doing that – and it would defeat the purpose if he didn't – he was going to. He shuddered, sighing, rocking his hips a little into his mouth as Naruto worked up and down his cock. The blonde was watching him, his mouth turned in something that could have been amused sort of grin, sucking him tightly and pulling up every now and then for air, licking and kissing the tip adoringly. Naruto loved him so much. It was almost an abrupt reminder in the back of his mind that the person he was currently _blowing_ was the person he was in love with, _deeply_ in love with. This person who was, as a general rule, a complete prude, and was allowing Naruto to touch him very intimately for the first time and that meant Sasuke trusted him.

And that… that was just what he needed.

Naruto dipped back down and increased his pace sharply, suddenly, making Sasuke moan and the fingers in his hair tighten, guiding his head slightly. It felt so good. He couldn't really feel anything that wasn't a soft sort of heat, radiating through his legs and up his stomach as the endorphins rushed through him, and it was pleasant, _very_ pleasant, making him twitch and shake with more intensive force as he drew nearer to orgasm. Naruto grabbed one of his thighs, pressing it far apart from the other to give him a little more room, and Sasuke groaned, impenetrably quiet as he grew closer and closer, and Naruto bobbed faster and faster. He hitched suddenly, cumming without warning down his boyfriend's throat, exhaling exhaustedly as heat like a fire spread through every inch of his body, a huge rush of endorphins flowing into every corner of him to, genuine _relief_ from his head to his toes.

Naruto sat up, grinning and wiping his mouth

"You should see your face."

xx

I am alive! And I'm back from my unannounced, long hiatus. Happy New Year's everyone :3 To celebrate, here's some porn. I've been trying to write this chapter FOREVER, and have had no inspiration until now. I guess the holidays got me in the writing spirit. Hopefully Chapter 15 won't take as long, as I have a lot of ideas for it. Happy 2011, everybody :D! And, to toot my own horn, happy 30,000 hits and 75,000 words. Thank you Lamb for betaing for me even though you had a bad headache and it was like 2 in the morning.


	15. High Hopes

_**Brain Damage**_

_Chapter Fifteen_

Excitement for the trip to the Hot Springs was beginning to swell among the students as the first week of October rolled around. Departure was set for the 28th; the last Friday of the month, and they'd be staying until the 30th. The general good mood was somewhat contagious, and Naruto was certainly not immune. He was giddy with the idea of a field trip – the first one in what felt like forever – and his workload was actually starting to recede somewhat. The day after his _delightful_ date with Sasuke, he'd sat his parents down and asked if he could be relieved of part time work, since his Japanese course load was so rigorous. He'd _expected_ to get a mouthful from his mother and a serene, but somewhat disappointed look from his father, but to his pleasant surprise, they were both very understanding and somewhat appalled at how overworked Naruto truly was. So, about halfway through the week, they hired a woman named Tayuya for part-time work. And since being relieved of his post, Naruto had spent a lot of time… not working on his schoolwork.

Sasuke was still busy as hell. And just because he'd let Naruto give him head (and given him a hickie, oh _God_ Naruto was wearing that thing with pride) didn't really mean he was jumping into putting out. He was still doing track, cram work, and a huge amount of Photography work – moreso than usual, actually. He'd even started taking shots of figures, mostly Karin and Suigetsu, who weren't particularly good models in that Karin posed like a hooker (which was not apparently the look he was going for) and Suigetsu just wasn't good at taking direction. Juugo, as Sasuke described specifically, could embody either serenity or intense rage, but nothing in between.

If Naruto had been _more interested_ in photography, he'd at least _try_ to get Sasuke to take photos of him, but frankly, he wasn't. He'd seen Sasuke take photos before, and sometimes, it was just beautiful to watch. Other times, it was Sasuke bitching at his models to "tilt the chin up, arch your back less, make your collarbone jet out, part your lips…" and frankly, it seemed like a pain in the ass. If Sasuke _asked him_ to model, of course, Naruto'd do it, but Sasuke obviously didn't want him as a model because otherwise, he'd have coldly said something like "Come model for me. And brush your hair."

So, Naruto had had a pretty good week. While Sasuke ran around like a chicken with his head cut off, doing track and his schoolwork, Naruto had gotten to go home and laze around. Get high, eat a bunch of ramen, attempt to break masturbation records - the usual behavior of adolescent boys without much responsibility. Still, he couldn't really be happy only seeing Sasuke just once a week. Sure, he could stare at Sasuke's back in school, admiring him dazedly, but that was just fucking _cruel_. Because now, unlike before, he'd finally gotten somewhere. He'd been given a taste and it had him _mad_ with lust, to the point that if he let his mind stray at all, he'd end up thinking about it. And if he thought about it, he'd get an erection and frankly, he liked getting off too much to _not_ satisfy it. But that was the problem. Even without working, most of this lust crept up in the most inopportune places. In Gym, for instance. Or at dinner with his mother and father. It wasn't so much stressful as it was driving him _crazy_, and he was counting the days to that trip.

Because he and Sasuke would be rooming together.

If Naruto had it his way, he'd fuck Sasuke so hard into the futon on the first night that the kid would _need_ to sit in a hot spring for the rest of the trip just to recover from it. But he wasn't really betting on that actually happening. Although he'd seen a deliciously carnal side of his boyfriend he'd never properly seen before (except that once), it seemed too much like… a mistake. Almost. Not to him, of course. But it seemed like the kind of thing Sasuke would regret. And that _sucked_. All week, he'd been walking on eggshells, waiting for the conversation when the Uchiha would stop him and say something like, "Look, we need to talk…" and as the conversation continued to not arrive, Naruto just got more and more tense. His parents took that tension in his eyes to mean he really was being overloaded with schoolwork, which was fine enough. His mother was looking at him with gentler eyes and his father offered to start driving him to school again, but Naruto refused the offer.

Really, he didn't know what he was doing with himself. He was caught in an uncomfortable place. His temperament was good, certainly, but also somewhat contemplative and a little nervous. It wasn't really like Naruto to feel a lot of conflicting emotions – it was usually just several like-emotions that came off as explosive. Like a sun spot.

As Autumn set in all over Japan, he found himself missing home. To a degree, he was _always_ missing California – San Francisco was the greatest city in the world, and everywhere in America was so fucking beautiful when the leaves were changing. What's more, America had a degree of un-tamedness that Japan didn't. Everywhere in Japan seemed so crushed down, so cultivated, but in America, there were still plenty of places where you could really get lost in the woods and never be found. Not in San Fran, of course, but there really was _rural_ in America. His free time was giving him time to think about what he loved about America and what he really hated about Japan. He really, _really_ hated how much he stuck out. It was _because_ he stuck out that he couldn't go to Sasuke's track meets, or wait for him outside of cram school, or—

Naruto blinked a little.

_Why_, again, wasn't he going to all of these things? Because of Sasuke's stupid father not liking him? How often did Sasuke's dad even _go_ to that shit. Fugaku was tense as fuck the first time they met, and all he really seemed interested in was work. What was the _point_. If the man had showed up to any of the meets, Sasuke would have said something! Because it would have been considered a big deal. Yet he never talked about him, even when Naruto asked. And what the hell did he _do_ to Fugaku, anyway? The times they'd crossed paths, Naruto had been fucking angelic! And it's not like he introduced himself as his boyfriend, what the fuck was that bastard's _deal_. Was it because he was American? Was the douchebag _seriously_ xenophobic? But how could he be, and send Sasuke to an International School?

How… could he?

He checked his watch. The week had dragged on slowly enough, and it was 6:15PM on Thursday. Initially, Naruto had been taking Sasuke to dinner on Tuesday and Thursday, right after his track meets. But that ended up falling apart, just like Naruto's cram schooling had fallen apart – and both of which were from the same combined two reasons. Naruto's working and Sasuke's paranoia. But now Naruto wasn't working, so… so why the hell _not_. He and Sasuke were on the best terms they'd been on in ages and _God_, just seeing him made his heart fucking flutter. He felt stupid for none of this occurring to him earlier. Everything really _was_ better.

xx

Sasuke felt like his veins were pumping a chemically unstable mixture of gasoline and lye. That's how much running was hurting. But he didn't stop – he was well ahead of everyone else, and seconds away from making his best time. Nobody he really cared about was there to watch this minor success, but it was _worth it_, to feel that success. Every time his feet hit the asphalt of the track, he heard an audible snap, and after the first lap he'd wondered if it was his bones breaking underneath him. But it wasn't. Maybe it was his body breaking the sound barrier as he exceeded its speed. (Doubtful.) Regardless, he was _fast_, faster than he could ever remember being, and his mind was whiting out as his body creaked underneath him.

He'd been relieved of his sling a couple of days ago. The injury hadn't been particularly bad in the first place – he'd definitely had worse. There was a strange air to his home now. Maybe it was the secret in his stomach of the intimacy he'd shared with Naruto – getting somewhere he'd _never_ gotten with Gaara (and certainly had never intended to, at that age) – but the weight of what he'd gotten himself into was a heavy pit in his stomach. It wasn't as if he felt guilty, but he worried that maybe, just maybe, they knew. The thought of Itachi knowing was _mortifying_, and if his father knew… well. He just didn't know. Maybe Fugaku would send him off to gay camp. They'd had those in Korea, were there any in Japan? If not that, maybe military school. Sasuke was slim and had the figure of a runner, which wasn't a bad body-type to have going into the military. Better to go in lanky and slight than fat, he supposed.

No, he had to keep this business about himself and Naruto an even tighter secret than before. Because unlike before, where it was just stupid kisses, this was... (Naruto's head between his legs. Blonde hair brushing the inside of his thighs. Up and down. Up and down. _Mm_.) …different. This was different. This was a whole new level. He could see the finish line closely, and didn't dare look back to see how close the rest of the runners were. He couldn't see any to his immediate left or right, and none in front of him, so he bounded forward hard, his lungs wheezing. He needed to finish. And then he needed air. (Fingers digging into his thighs, pressing them apart. Nose brushing just barely into his pubic hair as he moves downward. Knee twitches. Involuntary. So _good_.)

His face was already red from exercise, so there wasn't much of a change as he let his mind drift. Every _time_ he let his mind drift, he went back to that. He couldn't ever remember being this goddamn hormonal. He rocketed down the pavement of the track and practically spilled over the finish line, a whistle being blown and his time recorded. He didn't dare stop right there, for if he did he would be trampled by the other runners, but instead veered off the track, breathing hard and legs wobbling. The burn was intense, but it was melting into a sort of gelatinous, airy-feeling, the act of walking being such an instant relief compared to running.

"Sasuke!"

Coach, I just finished, give me a _minute_.

"Sasuke!"

The voice was louder now, even louder than the sound of his heart beating in his ears. He peered up.

"Holy _shit_, Speedy Gonzales. You're so amazing!" Naruto was jogging up to him, changed out of his school uniform into a tacky orange tracksuit and holding a water bottle out to him. The relief of _yes, water, I need that_ was so instant and so genuine that he didn't think twice about Naruto being there, taking it from him and emptying over half of it on top of his head. He was still panting, and he could hear his boyfriend blabbering something at him but he wasn't really listening. He shook some of the liquid out of his hair and drank the rest of the bottle quickly, forgetting to breathe through his nose and panting even harder when he finished it. God, he was so winded. "-And you were so good! I only got to see like, _half_ of it, but how did you even-" He really needed a shower. Because if he didn't take the shower _soon_, he'd just end up sitting down and it'd be impossible to get him to stand up again. Maybe he really did overdo it.

"Sasuke?"

He sighed, looking up. "What?"

Naruto's looked him over, concern on his features. "You okay?"

The Uchiha nodded, eyes half-closed. "Yeah. I'm just tired. I'm gonna take a shower."

"…yeah. Okay." Naruto nodded back. "I'll wait outside for you."

There were only a couple of stalls where one could shower without being watched, and since Sasuke had gotten there first, he snagged one. He was surprised to see Naruto there, of course, and if he came off nonchalant before him, it was only because he was too exhausted to make any kind of fuss. He took a cold shower to kill the half-hard erection he'd managed to force unto himself by thinking about The Event, trying to get in and out as quickly as possible. As soon as it was gone and he no longer _reeked_ of sweat, he left the showers for the locker room and pulled on a change of clothes. It was just a pair of loose track shorts and a T-shirt, nothing too special and certainly not as nicely as he usually tried to dress, but he wasn't going to bother when his legs felt so weak.

Naruto was waiting for him outside, just as he said, and the blonde had a big, _stupid_ grin on his face that made his stomach turn over a little. "Hey. Sorry, I know you want me to come announced and stuff but I thought we could go get dinner? It's kinda late and I bet you're _starving_. And I'm starving. My favorite ramen place is still open if you're good with that. Or we could go to McDonald's? Or my parents' restaurant. Or…"

Sasuke grinned a little. It looked more like a smirk than a grin, which earned a loud "Are you making fun of me, teme?" from the other, but he wasn't. It was a serene, content grin. This was how it was supposed to be.

xx

Today was the day. Today was the _day_, today was the day. Today was _finally_ the day! Naruto had barely been able to sleep the night before, tossing and turning and going over to his packed bags to check over and _over_ if he had everything. Because for the past three weeks, _everything_ had been building up to today. He was so excited, so giddy with it that he got up early to make his parents breakfast, since he wasn't sleeping anyway, a classic American breakfast of eggs, pancakes, and _tried_ to make bacon but as it turned out, there was no real bacon in Japan. There was stuff in a package that _said_ it was bacon. It _looked_ like bacon. But it did not _cook_ like bacon. It came out flat, dry, and kind of disgusting, so Naruto tossed it out and just cut up some fruit instead. Because today was the day! And nothing could spoil his mood.

His three weeks leading up to today had been _fantastic_. Although he hadn't had the good luck to get into Sasuke's pants again (or have Sasuke in his, god, just _one_ handjob and he'd be satisfied for months), he'd been doing _very_ well in every other category. His grades were improving _somehow_, despite that he wasn't studying really any more than he ever had. He was having a better time with his friends than he ever had, spending every day he couldn't spend with Sasuke with them. He'd grown very close to Sakura and Kiba, and relatively close to just about everyone else. He'd gotten to watch Japan slowly transform into the fall season, watching all the colors of the leaves change and the weather calm down into something nice, something _manageable_. And what time he did spend with Sasuke was just… amazing.

He was so in love. Every moment was giddy, light, airy and absolutely perfect. Every kiss was enough to make him heady and stupid. Everything. And what's more, he felt almost invincible now. Because things were going really well. They went on dates. Real-dates, where Naruto decided what they did and paid for it, and slightly-less-real-but-probably-more-fun-dates where Sasuke decided what they did and paid for it. They visited temples, parks, went out to eat a lot, went to movies… it was so _nice_. Even without the sex, he was totally content. And Sasuke seemed happy enough too. Yeah, he was overworked, but every time they saw each other, there seemed to be some weird crack in his disposition. And Naruto, naturally, believed that said crack was a crack of, as Lee would say, YOUTHFUL LOVE~

But today? Was the day. Three weeks of waiting and _finally_. The time had come.

Today was October 28th. The day they left for the hot spring trip.

Naruto was packed. He had day clothes. Most of which were hiking quality because apparently they were doing a lot of that. He had money. With which to be souvenirs and food when he wasn't fed enough. He had toiletries. Probably wouldn't use them since most of that stuff was usually provided. But whatever. He had lubricant and condoms. Because _please God_ let this be the weekend he finally gets laid with Sasuke. He had a fresh batch of pot brownies buried deep in his suitcase, possibly to use later to enhance whatever sex he would or would not be having with Sasuke. He had a swimsuit. Because the hotel also had a pool. He had his itinerary and a map of Kusatsu. He had his cell phone and its charger. He was _ready_. Dear _God_ he was so ready.

And it wasn't just that he was excited to potentially bang the hell out his boyfriend – in fact, he was realistically expecting that to _not_ happen. He was excited more to just get away with him. Everyone on the trip _knew_ that Naruto was in love with Sasuke. Everyone on the trip (with the possible exception of poor, naïve Hinata) _knew_ that Sasuke had started reciprocating it. And because of this, Sasuke and Naruto didn't need to try so hard to hide it. In Naruto's mind, their weekend would be that of total liberation. Hand-holding and kissing in public and all the gayeties involved with YOUTHFUL LOVE. And although he couldn't _count_ on sex with Sasuke, he could pretty much _count_ on having a really amazing time overall. So Naruto? Naruto was fucking _delighted_.

He had to be at the school by 7:30AM, and the bus was leaving at 8, with or without him. Despite Kushina's severe disapproval at being dragged out of bed at 6AM, both she and her husband could tell how stupidly excited their kid was, and grudgingly got up on proper time. Since he had more than just a backpack, they'd be taking him to school by car, and since it was a Friday morning, it meant that all of the traffic in the _entire fucking world_ would be in Tokyo the moment they left. Which was balls. But that's how it had to go.

Sasuke wasn't quite so excited to be leaving, miles away at the Uchiha mansion. His three weeks had been painstaking, but most of his photography portfolio was completed, he'd won a couple of recognitions in track, he still had perfect grades, but he was _tired_. He was tired. The night before he was due to leave, his father had called him into his office and had a discussion with him about Naruto. The fact that Fugaku remembered the idiot blonde's name was a bad sign – Sasuke had hoped that his father would have forgotten him, just like he'd forgotten Gaara and so many of Sasuke's other friends he hadn't approved of. After a brief, painful discussion, Sasuke had been dismissed and he had gone upstairs to pack for the next morning's departure. Technically, he and several other students could just _drive_ to the Hot Springs town instead of the class renting a large bus for everyone, but keeping only one means of transportation meant that it would be harder to lose someone. So Sasuke would be going to the school with his brother, who would drive the car back to the manor for the weekend.

He wasn't in the best temperament. Managing a trip like this had been hard enough on him, on top of everything else. He'd gotten up at 6AM with the intention of leaving at 7, since it would take an hour with traffic to get to the school, and went ahead and brought his luggage down and put it into the car. He didn't know if Itachi was awake or not, nor did he really care – as long as his brother was in the passenger's seat of his car at 7AM, things would be fine. And he had no reason to suspect they wouldn't be.

_Things will be fine_.

Sasuke found himself chanting this in his head like mantra as he ate his breakfast, a small bowl of cereal and a cup of coffee. The kitchen's television had the morning news on, which reported rain in Tokyo (great) for most of the day. The weather in Kusatsu wasn't supposed to be bad, but one could never really count on it. Would they be allowed to use the hot springs if it rained? Probably not. Lightening and all of that. A hot spring bath sounded _great_ in his current condition, although his body wasn't in the best condition for anyone to be seeing. He had a number of healing bruises from various confrontations littering his body, and although most of them were brown enough to not look like anything, their numbers were great enough to arouse suspicion.

He could just imagine Naruto, tactless Naruto, yelling loudly "_DAMN_ HEARTBREAK, YOU LOOK LIKE A LEOPARD."

He fingered one of the hickies still on his throat, blushing a bit.

At 6:45, he was somewhat pleased to hear the sound of feet descending the stairs, too light to be Ms. Choi on her morning rounds. Sasuke's eyes were on the news as Itachi hit the landing, not looking up until he heard another voice.

"Get me some oil while you're out."

"I'm no maid of yours."

"_Please_, then, darling~?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

Shisui.

He really couldn't make himself like Shisui. He was too… much. He didn't really _dislike_ Shisui either, but there would always be a large part of him that resented him for stealing Itachi away for so much of his life. And there would always be a part of him that would like at him and think _You don't belong. Go back to Korea_.

"What colors."

"Forest green and lilac. I will pay you back once I get the-"

"Don't worry about it."

"Hmm How charming." A pause. "I love you very much, you know."

Sasuke blinked, his head snapping towards the two of them from where they stood on the landing, but Shisui was gone. It was just Itachi, walking towards him, slipping through the doorframe and opening the refrigerator. His brother retrieved an apple, red and unbruised, and shined it with his shirt before taking a bite. Sasuke said nothing. Itachi said nothing. There was no sound, even as Shisui climbed back up the stairs, which was wholly unnerving as the steps had been audible as they descended. (Maybe it was his imagination? He didn't get a lot of sleep last night.)

Strange.

At 7AM, he took the wheel of his car and they made their way slowly towards the school. It wasn't raining too heavily, but it slowed down already delayed traffic and kept everything misty and uncomfortable. Sasuke and Itachi barely spoke. His brother asked a couple of questions, mostly about the nature of the trip and if he had enough money, but the questions were clipped, just like the light in Itachi's eyes. Always clipped, always… half-there at most. Sasuke didn't even try to really stimulate his brother into conversing much. He was far too tired to try to bring him out of whatever shell he was in, and wasn't particularly good at conversation himself. They made it to the school later than 7:30, not to his surprise at all and apparently not to the chaperone's because plenty of other students appeared to be running behind as well. After a short, too-formal goodbye, Sasuke packed his suitcase into the bottom compartment of the bus and his brother drove away.

Naruto, for the first time _ever_, had beaten him. The blonde was sitting in the back (typical) with a seat next to him open, his blue eyes lit up like the ocean with the sun reflecting on it upon catching sight of "Sasuke!"

Oh yes. Today was the _day_ for Uzumaki Naruto. There had been momentary worry at first, when he got here and always-on-time-perfect-class-president Uchiha _Sasuke_ hadn't been here already, and a little more worry when he didn't answer his text, but he was here now. He was _here_ and they were _leaving_ for the Hot Springs. It was going to be perfect. Sasuke walked down the aisle of seats and sat next to him, greeting him a bit dully because apparently he wasn't nearly as awake as Naruto. In fact, the only person who seemed _half_ as awake as Naruto was Ino, who'd apparently gotten more than enough beauty sleep and was chatting noisily on the phone with her new boyfriend. Word had gotten around she was dating someone from the _Yakuza_, what a charge. As Sasuke sat, Naruto immediately planted a kiss on his lips, warm and wet and oh-so-happy-to-see-him, even if Sasuke shrugged him off with a grunted "Have some decency…"

Naruto was _happy_. Yes he was.

By 8:30, the last of the stragglers from their class had made it onto the bus. Their driver was a kindly looking man, and there were a couple of teachers manning various parts of the bus, trying to keep an eye on everyone to make sure no one was smoking or that "the fags weren't sucking each other's dicks" as a couple of students near the front had so eloquently put it. Despite Naruto's usually confrontational nature, he was in too good of a mood to get pissed off about it, and Sasuke looked so close to falling asleep on or in the vicinity of _him_ that he kept pretty quiet. Kusatsu was three hours by rented bus, and longer by any alternative means of transportation, and the students were either babbling excitedly or trying to get a three hour nap in so they didn't lose momentum during the fun things. There was already talk of parties in the student's rooms, and maybe a Halloween party on the last night there, and definitely a pool party at one point or another.

On top of the (possible) ass he was getting, this trip just sounded increasingly more fun by the minute.

They stopped for gas once, but Sasuke was dead asleep by then, not quite _on_ Naruto but near him enough to where he didn't really want to move. The pit-stop was only for 10 minutes though, so it wasn't worth it to get up, even if his stomach was already grumbling for second-breakfast. Sasuke stirred about half an hour away from Kusatsu, eyes bleary, waking the way one always does when having slept uncomfortably in a car. He checked his watch, made a bit of a face ('I slept for _three hours_?') and looked around, stretching a little and sighing.

"Are we there yet?"

"Nearly, heartbreak."

"How far?"

"…eh. Thirty, maybe less."

Sasuke nodded drowsily, turning into himself a little and checking his phone. Naruto just observed him, his little mannerisms, the little ways he blinked the exhaustion out of his eyes with appreciation, leaning over to kiss his temple and feeling a sense of calm pride when Sasuke didn't flinch away or try to berate him for it. When they arrived and the seats in front of them started to empty, Sasuke turned into him and kissed him on the mouth, nothing too intense but not quite a little peck either. It was… good. It was the kind of kiss Naruto wanted, and it made his chest flutter as Sasuke so often did.

"I love you, y'know?"

"…yes. I know. Let's go, now. It's time."

xx

Heeeey everyone. Sorry for the late-late update. I really did intend to write sooner than this, but I had a helluva semester. And what's more, this is a lead-in/filler chapter for all of the awesome that next chapter will be in my brain. So bare with me! This was a necessary evil but I swear that the next chapter will be worth it. There will be smut! and silly things. So. I'M SORRY, READERS. I really am. For sucking at updating and sucking at updating good stuff. You mayyy or may not have noticed the chapters all have names now. Which all correspond to Pink Floyd songs. A THEME? IN BRAIN DAMAGE? I THINK SO! Major thanks to my beta for looking this over for me and major thanks to my readers and reviewers for keeping me going on this fanfic.


	16. Shine On, You Crazy Diamond: Part I

_**Brain Damage**  
Chapter Sixteen: Part I_

Kakashi was counting heads as Naruto and Sasuke disembarked from the bus, looking (as per usual) relatively bored but satisfied with them as they made the number he was looking for. He stepped inside the bus briefly, telling the driver to head on to the hotel with their luggage since Kusatsu was a _very_ walkable town, and there was a heady sort of grumble that passed over the group of students. Everyone who'd stayed awake for the drive was now properly tired, their lack of sleep having caught up with them, and everyone who _had_ slept was even more tired, since there was no comfortable way to sleep on a moving bus cramped with teenagers. But Sasuke felt alright. The driver had left them at a bus station, and he bee-lined (Naruto following) for a Kiosk to get another cup of coffee. As the student body president, he needed to be awake and alert, since most of the adults were incompetent.

"Alright." Kakashi clapped his hands together happily. "On the third floor of this building is the major Hot Springs museum of Kusatsu. We will stay for 45 minutes and you will have 15 minutes to peruse the gift shop, should you be so inclined. I will be following you to make sure you visit the exhibits." Another audible groan. Their teacher was undeterred. "At 12:30, one hour from now, we will walk to the hotel. Your belongings will have been dropped off in your rooms. There, you will receive your keys and you will have 30 minutes of free time to settle in before we go to lunch. Is everyone _clear_."

Naturally, over half the group hadn't listened to a word until _lunch_ came up, so Kakashi was forced to repeat himself twice, though Sasuke didn't stick around. He let Naruto lace his fingers and went on upstairs to the exhibit. He'd been to hot springs many times in his life, and was relatively sure he'd been to Kusatsu at least once. It was a popular destination, had several luxury resorts, including a rather infamous ski resort during the winter season... Or maybe it wasn't he that had gone, but Itachi and he'd only seen pictures? The mind was painfully unreliable. He sipped his coffee, climbing the stairs, not noticing until he hit the second floor how _quiet_ everything was. How quiet _Naruto_ was. He blinked, looking over his shoulder at him as if to make sure he was still there, and sure enough, the huge American was standing with him, looking a bit exhausted but a soft, calm grin on his face.

The serenity really didn't suit Naruto. It didn't look right.

He said nothing.

The museum's entrance fee was minimal, so Naruto and Sasuke paid their dues separately. Sasuke had brought quite a bit extra money just in case Naruto spent himself out on souvenirs, or worse, damaged something in the hotel, and Naruto had brought some extra money as well, to buy Sasuke stuff and be a Good Boyfriend. The blonde seemed to perk up slightly once inside the museum, but quickly burned right out again. It had a set of open canals running through it, pumping water slowly from the largest spring in town, and had a bunch of information about the minerals in it that made is so ~magical~. Naruto could read a little of it (with difficulty), and eventually decided he really didn't give enough of a shit to go through the trouble of translating. He snaked his arm around Sasuke, kissing his neck warmly, giggling a bit as the Uchiha shrugged him off. Mmm, he was so cute. So so cute.

Other students filed into the exhibit in clusters, and the quiet that Sasuke had been enjoying – and Naruto was feeling kind of uncomfortable in – slowly evolved into a dull roar. It wasn't long before Naruto found himself chatting just as loudly as everyone else, but mostly with his friends. He peered over at the brunette, whose hand he was still holding. Sasuke had friends, didn't he? Yeah. 'Course he did. Suigetsu and Karin and that huge guy. Just nobody in their class. Naruto's eyes went from Sasuke's hairline to the shape of his nose, down to his lips, which were glued to his coffee cup.

"…What?"

"Nothing."

Sasuke arched a delicate brow. "Stop staring at me, it's eerie."

Naruto laughed, leaning to kiss his cheek

The walk to the Hotel really wasn't bad – the ground was flat for most of the way, even if there were rocks scattered everywhere – but the fact that Naruto, and just about everyone else, was _so_ hungry made the trip seem a thousand years long. Everyone chatted merrily and complained in sync, with the exception of a couple of people who either considered themselves too good for everyone else or just couldn't speak Japanese well enough yet to understand what the hell anyone was saying. Sasuke really wasn't talking much – he never really did function well in groups and tended to only speak if he was asked a direct question. He was keeping himself busy, though, fiddling with his camera and taking lots of pictures. Some would go to the yearbook, some would end up on the walls of the classroom, and plenty would turn out so badly they weren't worth ever seeing the light of day. But Kusatsu truly was beautiful, and the autumn scenery, the old fashioned Japanese inns, and the hot spring pools everywhere made for good pictures. They were surrounded by mountains in just about every direction, and some were already dusted with one of the first season's snows. It was… just nice. A good place for them to vacation.

"Ugh, can you believe this crap-"

"…failing that class, and you wouldn't _believe_ how pissed my parents…"

"You can't date a guy like that! He's a _dick-_"

"…um, yes, I'm taking, um, several entrance exam preparations…"

"And did you hear he was moving back to England? Lucky bastard…"

"-Yeah, I totally went to a fortune teller and everything! We were _meant_ to be together!"

"Did you see that movie? Totally _sick_, I heard it's about three people who get abducted-"

Sasuke focused in on a child running down the street and took a candid shot, looking away quickly just in case her rather stressed-looking mother noticed. Although he considered himself mostly done with his portfolio for Deidara's class, he was always half-working, just in case he happened upon the perfect shot. The theme he had been given last semester was so _stupid_. It wasn't him at all, and he could only capture it in certain contexts. He'd taken photos of Itachi, of strangers, altered old photos of Gaara, and of course, candid shots of strangers. But none of Naruto. That would be too… obvious. And it wouldn't be wholly true. It just… no. Just no. As the inn came into view, he turned off his camera and squeezed Naruto's hand slightly. He was reminded, uncomfortably, of the weekend's implications. His stomach dropped a little. It's not as if he didn't _want to_. Or that he wasn't ready…

Yeah. Like his photo project, it was better not to think too deeply about it.

"Omi_god_, Sasuke!"

He snapped out of his daze. They had arrived at the hotel, its size rather impressive and steam billowing out from the backside where the hot springs were. "This place is fucking _amazing_, did you choose it? I bet you did. Guess it's probably worth all the friggen money we're paying for it, fuck me Freddy Kreuger this is _awesome_!" Sasuke snorted dryly. The eternally snobbish part of him was comparing it to the many far more grand places he'd stayed in his life, in Japan and abroad, but he was tactful and didn't flaunt his wealth. Most of the students who attended their international school were rather well-off too, since tuition didn't come cheaply, and plenty of them found it culturally normal to talk about how it was such a _shame_ that they got a very high-end luxury _sedan_, because they oh-so wanted a luxury sport utility vehicle, and _ohh_, their parents were such shitheads because of it. Sasuke had been very privileged in his life, certainly. But he'd long since passed his spoiled-brat phase.

"It should do." He nodded sagely. "The rooms are on the small side. And the bathrooms are on the very-small side. So be prepared for that. You might have to duck your head."

Naruto could only grin at this. "Wanna push our beds together to make more room?"

"'Make more room?' How considerate of our space predicament." Sasuke scoffed. "There are no beds. There are two Japanese futons on the floor. IE, it's a mattress and a thin blanket."

Naruto paused nearly a full minute, looking thoughtful. "…so let's push those together."

"Why did it take you more than a moment to make that logical leap."

"I was imagining you naked."

"No, you weren't."

"YOU DON'T KNOW ME."

"Yes I do."

"YOU DON'T KNOW MY LIFE."

"Shut up, stupid, you're loud."

Naruto burst into giggles, grabbing Sasuke's wrist and pulling him forward for a kiss. More on reflex than anything, Sasuke turned his head so all Naruto got was his cheek, but Naruto hummed softly, not really bothered by it. He kissed his cheek twice, then his temple, throwing his arm around Sasuke's (bruised) shoulders as they waited to get their keys from their teacher. Naruto liked Kakashi. The only teacher he really liked more was Jiraiya, but he was managing another class of students. The freshman classes had been split up among the chaperons, for the sake of time management, but they were all in the same hotel and with little exception, all rooming next to one another. It was better than in America, that was for fuckin' sure. Without fail, it always ended up being four students to a room with two beds. And Naruto would suggest how it was totally _not gay_ to sleep in beds together, and he'd end up convincing the other three. And they'd end up going to bed back to back, several feet from one another, feeling pretty not-gay. But in the morning, without _fail_, they'd wake with their noses 1/4th of an inch apart, legs entwined, trying to get rid of morning-wood while saying that they were all totally. Not. Gay.

Yes, this was better. Because, if he had roomed with someone that was not Sasuke, he would have his own damn futon to sleep in. And since he was rooming with Sasuke, it was going to be about as gay as any Japanese field trip had ever seen. So fuck. _Yeah_.

He glanced over at Sasuke again, as they walked through the line to get their keys. He was feeling bad again. Naruto knew Sasuke didn't have a lot of friends. He _supposed_ it was because he just didn't want them, because it wasn't as if people didn't try. And even though all of Sasuke's even sort-of friends could be counted on one hand, he was still considered very popular because everyone knew who he was – and as class president, he was _supposed_ to know everyone in the freshman class.

Still… Naruto couldn't fathom how someone seriously didn't want friends. Naruto's friends were his life. Despite the fact that he spent most of his time thinking about Sasuke, the time he spent with Sakura and everyone else made his heart just _swell_ with happiness. Everyone he'd come to love were all so quirky in their own way and he really treasured them. Sakura was beautiful, strong, kind, and yet a bit intense when angered. Kiba was exotic, being Spanish and having very visible face tattoos, but _really_ fucking funny and excitable. Shikamaru, a genius who would probably go on to be the next Bill Gates, always failing all his classes until finals day, where he aced the test. Always lazing around watching clouds. And his ex-girlfriend Ino, a future-model from head to toe, obnoxiously loud at times but truly very kind when it came down to it. Hinata, who always looked at him with the same vacant stare and brought him boxed lunches all the time, since Naruto's mom usually managed to forget. There were more, _tons_ more, Naruto was popular for all of the _right_ reasons. He was tall, attractive, kind, funny, had a never-ending barrage of very interesting things to say (even if some of them were stupid)… he was just a good person.

Not saying that Sasuke wasn't. In fact, Sasuke was the _best_ person. But why he chose to be so antisocial, he couldn't get it. He took in his boyfriend's features carefully, biting his bottom lip. If Sakura and Ino were beautiful in a conventional way, Sasuke was gorgeous in an unconventional way. Naruto didn't really know what it was about him that made him attractive. If you _really_ looked at Sasuke, it was a collection of features typically considered to be unattractive. His lips weren't full; in fact, they were quite thin and made him look a little angry all the time. His eyes were black – just black. He had to be smiling for any real life to be in them. His cheekbones were also a little _too_ high. It was freakish, and it made his angry expressions all the more frightening. Once you moved down to his figure, well. He wasn't particularly muscular, and he was really _pale_. Not the good kind of pale, all fair-skinned and Snow White-esque, but the kind of pale someone gets after they've been sick for over a week. But somehow, when you smashed all of these typically unattractive things together, you got Sasuke. Who was _stunning_. Naruto sighed contentedly.

Sasuke stepped forward a pace and suddenly, they were facing Kakashi. "Okay, you two." He looked at them with an odd little smile. "Room 303. Try not to wake your neighbors~"

The Uchiha blinked and muttered "Uh, okay." and took the keys. Naruto bought back a giggle.

Their room _was_ small. For security purposes, there was a hinged door at first, and immediately after it, a sliding paper door where Sasuke and Naruto left their shoes. The floor was tatami material, and indeed there were two futons laying no more than a foot across from one another. In front of them was a small table with some tea-making supplies, and in the corner was the bathroom. Their luggage was already there for them, sitting in front of the closet that was barely shorter than Naruto. It was… simple. Better than the bare-necessities, definitely, but worse than the average hotel in America. At least those had _televisions_. Granted, this hotel had public nude bathing. Which was _so_ awesome. Sasuke stretched a little, setting his camera down on the tea table. "We have 20 minutes or so before lunch. Don't be late to it – this style of inn has meals served at a specific time, and if you're not there for it, they'll let your food get cold."

"Yeah, no problem."

Naruto looked around briefly, as if expecting there to be something he didn't see before, and opened the curtains to let some light in. He gasped in delight. Although there was a ceiling built over the hot spring baths so guests, such as himself, couldn't look in on anyone while they were bathing, just seeing the steam billowing out was so cool. It was _legit_. This was what he'd pictured Japan being like. Not a crazy-crowded city with billions of fast moving Asians talking on super-futuristic phones. Naruto had always imagined Japan to look exactly the way it did in _Yojimbo_. He had imagined that every time he walked in slow motion down a street, there would be another guy sitting on the ground, and they'd lock eyes for half a second before BAM, INSTANT DRAMATIC SAMURAI FIGHT. And Naruto would always win because he was awesome. And then he'd go run off with a geisha or something. With all of that in mind, Japan had been disappointing, but Kusatsu was the real McCoy. Or.. the real McKoi. He laughed out loud at his own poor humor. Everything about this was so cool.

Behind him, Sasuke was unzipping his suitcase and unpacking a few things into the closet. Naruto allowed himself another minute or so to admire the scenery before unpacking his own day-glow orange suitcase. He fumbled around at the top shelf of the closet, blinking a little. There were a pair of… huh. Sheets?

"Sasuke, are these yours?"

The Uchiha looked up. "No, those are yukatas and they belong to the hotel." He said it in a very clipped sort of tone, reminiscent of a mom in that it implied _so don't you fucking ruin them, please_.

Naruto grinned. They got yukatas! That was kind of cool. "So… what. Do we wear them around, or?"

"Not right now. I mean, you could, but it's impractical. We'll wear them to dinner tonight, and then to the bathhouse."

"I thought we bathed naked."

"We _do_, smartass. It's like a bathrobe."

"Oh, OH. Okay. Yeah. Gotcha." Naruto unzipped his suitcase and started putting a few things away. Most of his stuff could just stay packed, but he thought it best to put his pan of brownies away. It was risky for him to bring these here. Marijuana was _very_ illegal in Japan. It was illegal in most states in the US, and even in California where it _was_ legal, he was too young to have a weed card. So it was still a crime. But it was _barely_ a crime. Crossing the street without using a crosswalk was a worse crime in San Francisco. But in Japan, the deal was way different, and how his parents continued to get it, he had no idea. And if he got caught with it, he'd probably be deported. It was serious shit, and he'd contemplated swearing off the stuff many times as he thought about the possible repercussions. But they hadn't been caught yet. Once he was finished unpacking to his liking, he looked over at Sasuke with a Cheshire grin. "So. Twenty minutes?"

The Uchiha checked his watch. "Sixteen, now."

"Wanna make out?"

"I was wondering if and when you were going to ask."

xx

At 1:00, the classes all convened in the lobby of the hotel, where lunch was being served. The tables were traditionally Japanese, very low to the ground, and everyone was supposed to sit in some kind of weird, painful position while they ate. Naruto knew at some point they'd studied it in his Japanese culture class, but he'd dismissed it as something he'd never really need to know and now that he needed to know it, had no idea what it was called. Luckily, he wasn't the only one. This was a lunch hall full of _foreigners_. And while some, such as Sasuke and Hinata, complied because they were more than familiar with it, most everyone else sat meditation style, happily munching on their meals. Naruto honestly wasn't a big fan of Japanese food. Sure, he loved ramen. But he was a big kid. And he was very active. He needed food a little more substantial than rice to eat, or he'd burn through it quickly, and most restaurants in Japan just didn't give him a big enough serving. So he ate as much as he could of the various dishes and drank some milk, checking the itinerary briefly and noting they had some shopping time later. If he was still hungry then, he'd grab something.

The freshman class split back up into their separate classes, and some boarded the buses again. It had been someone's – probably Sasuke's – brilliant idea to have the classrooms going to different attractions at different times. That way, it was a more manageable group and the people running the attractions weren't overwhelmed. Naruto's class was heading for Yubatake. According to the Hot Spring museum they'd visited earlier, Yubatake was one of the largest hot spring fields in Japan, and most of the inns – including theirs – had been built around Yubatake and were using its water. A cool thing about it, though, was that it was in the direct center of town, and being near it meant you were around the best shops and restaurants in Kusatsu. Not like Kusatsu was a shopper's mecca or anything, but there were some decent places.

Their walk was short, and they were given a tour guide for about an hour. Even Sasuke couldn't seem to properly hold his attention, and most people were sort of talking over him anyway. Sakura was a tad jealously admiring a diamond ring Ino's new boyfriend had given her. Shikamaru was looking at them almost angrily, either still a bit raw over the breakup or just not wanting to hear his ex boast about what her new lover was giving her. Chouji was looking a little out breath, since he wasn't in very good shape. Sasuke was taking pictures of the water, holding Naruto's hand every now and then and keeping pretty quiet. Hinata was a few paces behind both of them, looking doe-eyed and baleful and talking in a squeaky stutter to Kiba and Shino. There were more people of course, dispersed in clusters and admiring the scenery. It was _nice_, one couldn't ignore that, but the tour guide was boring and there was only so many times you could _hear_ about some stupid water without getting bored.

When they were finally set free to explore the shops of Kusatsu for a few hours, they practically left at a run. At 5:30, they were to meet at the inn for a headcount, and at six, they were to eat dinner, but until then, they could do whatever they wanted. The students all seemed to like the idea of _free time_ much more than the shadowed, watchful exploration they'd had to deal with thusfar. A part of Naruto wanted to run back to the hotel and make out with Sasuke, but he – and he couldn't believe he was thinking this – he could do that any time. Everyone broke up into smaller groups, and Naruto – deciding that he could forfeit this potential alone-time with Sasuke since they had so much of it _later_ – pulled his boyfriend along to walk with Shikamaru and Chouji.

"What're we doin' tomorrow, babe?" Naruto was sucking a popsicle he'd gotten from a street vendor for 100 Yen, despite the fact that it was _hardly_ warm outside.

Sasuke ignored the petname. "Climbing a mountain, going to a national park, and visiting a museum."

Chouji and Shikamaru both groaned. "_Geez_, Uchiha."

Sasuke looked at Shikamaru doubtfully. "I thought you liked the outdoors."

"Hiking is troublesome. Especially with a group this large."

Sasuke scoffed. Shikamaru was, no doubt, just being lazy and wanted to stay in the hot springs all weekend. And if truth were told, that sounded _wonderful_ to him too. Hours just soaking, letting all of his body's pains melt away in the hot water, and then, going to bed with Naruto every night. It just sounded calming. But it wasn't educational. And it didn't involve seeing any historical sights. And there was no way that the school's board would have ever approved a class trip that involved no educational benefits. "It's better than being in class. If you have a problem, go home."

"Be _nice_, Heartbreak."

"Che."

The four of them drifted about, running into other students now and then, looking for something to blow their money on as long as they were around. Sasuke got a bottle of tomato juice in a convenience store, and a pack of gum since tomatoes seemed to clash with the natural odor of his breath for something quite unsexy. Naruto picked up little knick-knacks for his parents, which was really quite sweet, and a _ton_ of food which he stuffed into Sasuke's camera bag since the camera itself was hanging around Sasuke's neck. Compared to what tomorrow sounded like, the first day was quite low-maintenance, really. After dinner, they would all get to go to the hot springs. Nobody was technically _required_ to go, since some people had body-issues and some people's ethical and religious backgrounds prevented them from bathing in public, but the students were bribed with extra credit if they did. Neither Naruto nor Sasuke needed that prompt, but it was a nice addition.

The sun was setting early on Kusatsu, and the town became only more beautiful in the dark. The hot springs were lit up and the areas around them were aglow with paper lanterns, and it was all romantic in the true sense of the word. Just gorgeous to look at. But as the sky darkened, the time for them to return to the inn grew nearer and nearer, and unease grew in Sasuke's stomach. It, the unspoken _thing_, was growing nearer and nearer. And he really wasn't sure. He just wasn't sure.

When he and Naruto got back to the inn to change into their yukatas, they were presented with a small problem. Due to Naruto's size, the one-size-fits-all robe cut off nearly at his knees. Which seemed _ridiculous_ and looked even worse, but apparently he was just too tall and too broad (broad, not fat) in every direction. On top of that, the wooden geta shoes he was supposed to wear didn't fit, and when he went to the lobby for another pair, their largest was still too small for him by a matter of several inches. The ordeal wasn't really a big deal to Naruto, but the hotel staff seemed utterly scandalized and blabbered at him in Japanese, rushedly saying how they'd get him replacements as soon as possible (or something) and saying how they'd reimburse him for his troubles (what troubles?). Naruto really didn't think it was _that_ big of a deal, but the staff did. If there was one thing the Japanese could be counted on for, it was customer service.

He wore his ill-fitting yukata and a pair of flip flops to dinner, and Sasuke scowled a little at him but didn't say anything. Their meal was rather grand, a mix of Japanese dishes and a couple of western ones, and most of the students _gorged_. It had been a long day for everyone, especially the students who'd spent it climbing mountains and hiking through the national parks. Sasuke ate a little, but he wasn't really hungry. He'd always had a small appetite, with the exception of maybe _just_ after track, but this was much less than usual and if he wasn't having such a good time with everyone, Naruto probably would have noticed. But he didn't. Because he was having a _great_ time. With everyone. All of his friends and his precious Sasuke.

The dinner conversation was mostly mild, just gossip about other students and the occasional gripe over schoolwork, and after an hour and a half, the students dispersed. The hot spring baths were segregated by gender, and the pool was open to everyone until a certain hour when it closed for the night. Jiraiya was standing outside of the Hot Spring gates when Naruto and Sasuke arrived – Naruto looking cheerful and excited and Sasuke looking a little ill. The somewhat creepy teacher was supposedly there to count heads so he knew whom to give the extra credit to, but everyone knew that was a joke and the girls looked at him suspiciously as they entered their side of the spring. Before they could bathe in them, though, they were supposed to apparently sit on plastic buckets and scrub their bodies clean. Which made zero sense to Naruto – wasn't that what the bath was for? – but made plenty of sense to Sasuke because he didn't even blink.

Naruto _also_ had managed to miss the part about a modesty cover. IE, a towel around your hips so your junk wasn't just. Hanging out. Doing its junk-thing. Maybe it was because, instead of the innkeeper just saying _towel_, he'd said modesty cover. And Naruto did not know what the Japanese words 謹勅こしおび meant. Apparently he wasn't the only one confused, because once they got into the changing room, nearly everyone looked confused unless they'd been to a hot spring before. Naruto had proudly stripped and had nearly barreled out the door, intending to be obnoxious as hell and cannon-ball straight into the spring, but Sasuke seemed to sense the impending disaster and grabbed his arm with such force Naruto slipped and nearly broke his tailbone hitting the tile floor with an incredible amount of force.

His boyfriend, still fully dressed, was averting his eyes to not even glance between Naruto's legs, instead glowering into his eyes. "Could you be more stupid?" Naruto was cursing, not at him but at everything, hands holding over the place where his back hurt the most, as if that would make it feel better. "Put this on." He tossed a towel into Naruto's lap, unconsciously looking and blanching slightly. Naruto was… big. Sasuke expected it, of course. They'd rubbed together enough for him to get an idea. And he's white. But good _lord_. What the hell _was_ that. He helped Naruto up, the blonde still wheezing a little from his fall, and as soon as the towel was on, he was out of the changing room and heading straight for the spring.

Ah, it was nice! It wasn't as magical as he had been lead to believe, but it was nice. He didn't barrel into straight into the water, nor did he tiptoe in to test the heat, but once he was in, he understood the appeal. The water had an odd little taste to it, and he ducked his head under, getting fully soaked and finding a decent place to sit. He'd expected more people to come than were there, but to his surprise, there really weren't a lot of students willing to bathe naked together. To him, it just didn't seem like any kind of big deal. The only awkward thing about this was that the object of his intense desire was about to get in with him, and the amount of self-control it would take to _not_ get an erection would be incredible. But other than that, what was the big deal?

Chouji wasn't coming, apparently. Okay, maybe that wasn't so surprising. Overweight people often had body image issues. Shino wasn't coming either, well. That wasn't much of a loss. Shino just about never talked, and when he did talk, it was only to Hinata or Kiba. Naruto had a feeling Shino didn't like him much either, which he couldn't figure out since Hinata and Kiba liked him just friggen fine, but like he said. No loss. Shikamaru came out from the changing room, stretching a little before slowly getting into the water. He was a bit thinner than Naruto remembered him being. There were a few other people who were staying at the inn already in the spring, families and friends tucked away to themselves away from the barrage of foreigners, and one was glaring particularly at Naruto's dripping face. Kiba showed, also unsurprisingly, and revealed himself to have quite a few more tattoos hidden underneath his clothing, which _was _surprising. Kiba was cool and all, but he didn't seem tough enough to get that many tattoos, and from the way he described his mother, she sounded like too much of a hardass to sign the consent forms for them. But then again, most teenagers over-exaggerated how bad their parents were. In fact, _most_ teenagers had awesome parents who were just doing what they thought was best, but kids are stupid and don't realize it until years later. Most of the time.

More students slowly filed in, and Naruto's lips pursed. Sasuke sure was taking his sweet time.

In fact, Sasuke _was_ taking his time. He was taking all of the time in goddamn _world_, if he needed to. He had stalled until the changing room was empty before he took off his yukata and folded it neatly in the locker he'd picked, and he inspected himself in the mirror as he tied on his towel. Hickies were all over his throat and collar, and a couple had hung around on the inside of his thighs. But there were other bruises too, much more obvious ones, and as he looked himself over, he frowned. It was hard to not notice. Naruto would notice. Would the idiot make a scene? He really didn't want him to, he was too tired for it. None of them were shaped like hands, so he could make something up. There was a big one on on his shoulder, though. Really big. But none of them were shaped like hands, and there was no reason to cause a scene. If the idiot knew what was good for him, he would _not_ cause a scene.

He pinned his bangs back with a bobby pin and stepped out of the changing room, shutting the door behind him. He had _expected_ everyone to give him just a bare glance and then go back to what they were doing, but that wasn't what happened. Everybody _stared_. For almost a minute. It wasn't the kind of stare he was expecting, either, it was… different. He couldn't discern it. As soon as he could get to it, he was in the water, wading over to sit next to Naruto and not saying a word. Conversation slowly resumed, but he didn't look Naruto in the eye, not really ready to see what was there. Hot Springs was a stupid idea. He had the power to choose where they went. He had the power to not come to the springs. He could have done whatever he wanted, but he _chose_ this place.

Why did he do it?

They should have just gone to Hiroshima. Safe, solid tour destination. Or maybe to Universal Studios Japan, after a tour of historical sites. Or Kyoto. He sat there, uncomfortable, not looking at anyone, and jumped a little as Naruto's arm looped around his shoulder. (Fuck it, he was acting like a girl.)

He looked over at Naruto, a bit sourly, and the blonde was grinning widely, almost ear to ear, leaning to kiss his temple. "You are the hottest fuckin' thing, I swear."

Sasuke snorted, trying to regain his comfort. "Don't be creepy."

The blonde laughed loudly, cuddling him closer and earning some rather scandalized stares from those who didn't know them in the bath. "Wanna hear a joke?"

"What."

"What do they call the common cold in North Korea?"

"Gamgi."

"A Ki- wait, what? _No_, you're supposed to say 'what?'"

Sasuke rolled his eyes a little. "What?"

"A Kim Jong Ill-ness!"

The joke was so _bad_ that everyone, including the people they didn't know, laughed. Sasuke grew a little more comfortable as time went on, but he was going to leave exactly an hour from when he arrived. No earlier – that would show no resolve – and certainly no later. Naruto didn't bring up his body other than to complement it, and didn't touch him much, which kind of surprised him but he didn't mind it. There was a _lot_ of company. A lot of rather conservative looking Japanese men, staring at them in distaste.

Naruto let the water relax him slowly, keeping Sasuke close but not too close. It was taking every ounce of control he had not to get a boner, and he was still half hard just being this close to him. The amount of bruising on Sasuke's body really… he didn't know what to say to it. He wanted to ask, but he almost didn't want to know the answer. Still, if something was up, he needed to know so he could do something about it. Whatever it was, it definitely wasn't happening in school. But… hmm. Now that he thought about it, Sasuke had showed up to school wearing casts and slings a lot in the months Naruto had been there. _Shit_. _Could that even be possible? _And he missed school kind of… a lot. _Oh shit. Oh shit. Omigod. Omigod_.

Sasuke felt Naruto tense around him, blinking. "What's up?"

"Huh? Oh, hmm… nothing, I'm good."

"You're lying."

"_God_ your abilities to so deeply analyze me are just _incredible_, Sasuke."

Sasuke didn't laugh. "I'm going back to the room."

"What? Sa_sukeee_, don't be mad."

"I'm not mad, but I am tired. I'll see you later."

Naruto frowned as Sasuke stood up and left, watching him disappear into the changing room.

He was officially worried.

xx

Naruto had stayed in the spring for another 30 minutes or so before he too left for their room. He had intended to stay quite a bit longer, but the springs were open 24 hours a day and frankly, it just didn't sit well with him that he didn't know what was up. So he quickly changed, putting on his yukata backwards without anyone to help him and his wet flip-flops smacking the floor obnoxiously as he passed people. _Only_ as he passed people, it seemed – why did that always happen? He smiled disarmingly, heading up the stairs instead of taking the elevator (no use in not getting the extra exercise), keying into his room and leaving his flip flops by the door. He fluffed his wet hair briefly, getting it half-dry and not wanting to look like complete shit, and slid open the paper door.

Sasuke hadn't changed clothes. He was lounging around in his futon, the dark yukata clashing with the white sheets, his computer in his lap and… Sasuke was _giggling_. Not snorting, in that sarcastic, endearing-as-fuck way Naruto was used to. Or laughing, which Naruto had heard maybe once or twice. This was giggling. And what's more, Sasuke didn't jump at the sight of him and immediately stop, as one might have expected. Naruto's vision drew across the room, landing on the little table in front of him. His pan of brownies was open, quite a bit missing and a plastic plate filled with crumbs and an abandoned fork. On Sasuke's opposing side was a good amount of the food Naruto had bought earlier – empty bags, wrappers, and soda cans.

"Omigod. Omigod Sasuke. How many did you eat?"

Sasuke looked up at him, grinning a bit. His eyes weren't bloodshot, but his entire demeanor was just… different. So _calm_. There were dimples in his cheeks with his smile, and his eyes were warm, happy, and high. "How many of what?"

"Brownies. How many _brownies_, man."

Sasuke frowned a little at Naruto's serious. "Hmm. I dunno." He opened his laptop again, rolling onto his stomach. Naruto looked a little panicked. Although there wasn't any real way to overdose on marijuana, one could get too fucking high. And the issue with pot brownies was that you didn't really feel it right away. Nor could you taste it. So you could eat two, or three, or four, just waiting for the high to come and then it'd hit you all at once. He inspected the pan, frowning. "How are you feeling?"

Sasuke stretched a little, back arching deeply. "Relaxed. That bath did me good. Kind of… hungry. Horny. I don't know."

Naruto swallowed, and heat went straight to his groin.

The lord was testing him.

"Listen, babe, we gotta talk. Firstly, you're high." There wasn't really any other way to say it. "So… yeah. There's that. There was pot in that pan. So. Don't eat any more." Sasuke didn't really get mad about this. In fact, he didn't blink. Maybe he knew? Whatever, not the point. "Secondly. …okay. How do I put this. _Um_. You got bruises all over your body and I'm really worried about you. 'Cuz like. If I didn't know better, it looks like you're being abused, and if you are, we really need to talk about it… Hey! Are you listening?"

Sasuke was not. His attention was rapt on his computer, eating fistfuls of Cheetos as he watched videos online. Naruto sighed exasperatedly, crossing over to him and closing the laptop, and Sasuke looked up at him, rather scandalized and licking his fingers. "Sasuke, seriously. We need to talk."

"There's nothing to talk about." He spoke like he was suppressing the urge to laugh. "I mean- I'm not being abused. I have anemia. Bruises on my body just stay around longer."

Naruto closed his mouth, thinking hard. Sasuke could be lying. If he'd been hiding his abuse until now, there was no reason he wouldn't continue to hide it. But he was high. From the look of it, _really_ high. And most people were a lot more honest when under the influence of anything. He was certainly honest about his state. Sasuke sucked his finger briefly before kissing Naruto on the lips, brief and closed-mouth, grinning a little. "Anemia?" Naruto asked, looking at him suspiciously. Sasuke nodded briefly, pushing his laptop aside and kissing him again. "Mmhmm. So when I fall, the bruise looks worse than it is… and stays longer."

Naruto's arousal was starting to haze him out. _That seems reasonable_. "But…" What was he saying again? _Oh yeah_. "But you never said you had anemia before."

"It's not something you advertise." Sasuke was sucking the cheese-dust off his fingers. It wasn't really… sexy. Like, not conventionally sexy. Actually, it was kind of gross. But it was Sasuke doing it, so it was sexy. Somehow. Naruto stared. "Huh? Um…" Had Sasuke said something? He was pretty sure he had, but it literally hadn't registered at all. Fuuuck.

Sasuke frowned a little, looking up at him. "Are you listening?"

"…no. Can you say whatever you said before, again."

For some reason, to Sasuke, _that_ was fucking _hilarious_. Nothing had _ever_ been more hilarious to Uchiha Sasuke that what Naruto had just said and he fucking _burst_ out laughing, loud, all-over laughter that was just too adorable for words. God, Sasuke was so cute high. So so so so cute. It was _killing_ Naruto, really, but he shook it off, trying to stay focused. _Anemia._ Sasuke arms slid around Naruto's neck, burrowing his head into his collar and giggling all over. _They had been talking about anemia_. His hands moved to cup his ass, squeezing a little. They naturally belonged there. Oh God, one day, when this was all over? He was gonna marry this kid. One day. And they were gonna live on an island and get high and have sex every day, all day. And eat delicious food and just. It would be amazing. But that wasn't the issue right now. "You sure you're not lying?"

Sasuke nodded a little, barely hearing him.

"You _promise_?"

Sasuke nodded, grabbing the back of his hair and yanking him forward a bit roughly. "Mmhmm."

That… that would have to be enough. Shit, he was so hard. He was _so_ hard. He pulled Sasuke into his lap, grinding them together and kissing him fiercely, and fuck, _fuck_ was this really happening. How could this be happening? This was the kind of stuff he dreamed about, and then woke up and had to masturbate furiously to in order to get release within the ten minutes he had to get ready for school. This was _really fucking happening_. He groaned audibly, breaking their kiss briefly and nuzzle his face before toppling them over, kissing him again. Underneath him, Sasuke was wrestling with the belt of his own yukata, having a rather surprising amount of difficulty with it only _now_ and grinding their hips together eagerly. Naruto could have easily taken this moment to just do it – to take Sasuke's virginity and not look back at _all_, but instead, he did what his conscious told him to do.

That was stupid.

"Baby, baby…" He grabbed Sasuke's hands, which were tugging at the loose belt futilely, looking Sasuke in the eye. "How far do you want to go? You know you're high, right. _Really_ high."

Sasuke laughed loudly, forgetting his efforts with the belt and kissing him briefly. "I get high on painkillers all the time. Of course I know."

"Woah- Wait, _what_?" Naruto sat up, his erection dying a little.

Sasuke propped himself up on his elbows, looking irritated. Why was he asking so many stupid questions? "What do you mean 'what'?"

"Sasuke, no. Just _no_. That's not _okay_. Painkillers will make you fucking crazy. Are you kidding me? You're kidding me, right?" Sasuke's expression didn't reveal much either way, he just looked irate that he was getting cockblocked after all this time. "Omigod. No, Sasuke, you have to stop."

"You're one to talk."

"_I'm_ one to talk? No, weed and fucking _painkillers_ are way different. Pot isn't addictive and it doesn't turn you into an itchy and scratchy speedfreak after a week. Pot is _good_ for you. Painkillers make you crazy, and, and—"

"Don't compare speed and painkillers, they're completely different. And shut _up_, you're ruining it."

"Ruining _what_."

"This! This.. what we were doing. You're ruining it. Stop _talking._"

Before Naruto could say anything back, Sasuke had slid into his lap and was kissing him open mouthed. He was starting to have second thoughts. Yes, he loved Sasuke. He loved Sasuke in ways he'd never loved anyone else. Did he _want_ to sleep with him? Yes. God yes. But… would it be right? He could honestly say he had no idea Sasuke was using medication to get high. Where was he even getting it? Maybe his mom was addicted too. Plenty of hardworking mothers drowned their sorrows in Loratab and Vicodin back in San Francisco. It wasn't a good thing, but it certainly was a trend. Maybe she'd been giving them to him for all those times he got hurt running… and he started using them for fun? But… that wasn't the point. Could he be morally okay with himself for doing this? He looked at Sasuke. His eyes were puffy, reddening a little, and he was swaying a little in his lap, looking calm as he rocked his body back and forth. "…so back to my original question." Naruto exhaled slowly. "How far do you want to go?"

Sasuke paused at this looking thoughtful. "No.. sex. Not tonight, at least." Naruto kept his face completely still in an attempt to hide his deep disappointment. He was doubting himself, though, and doubt means don't. That's what his mama had always said. Well, no, that's what Minato had always said. Kushina had always told him that doubt means you're being a bitch and you should attack your fear that much harder. But Naruto didn't think that this was the best time to apply that logic. "But… the other stuff." Even intoxicated, Sasuke was either too embarrassed or too polite to say these things out loud. "Let's try."

Naruto blushed to his neck, but he nodded. Although he was disappointed, a handjob from Sasuke would sate him for a while. More than that… he shivered with anticipation. More than that would probably just blow his mind out of the back of his head, pretty much. He leaned down and kissed him, rather softly, hand running through the hair at the back of his neck and making himself familiar with it. With him. Shit, this was happening. This was happening. And yet he wasn't really feeling good about it. He _couldn't_ feel good about, knowing what he does now. But at least Sasuke wasn't getting beaten, right? (He could be lying.) But he isn't, because he would have lied about the painkillers too. There was no way. No, he was telling the truth. And it was one more think Naruto understood about him now. Sasuke being a pill-popper didn't make him a bad person or anything. No, he was still the person he was in love with. They could work the pill thing out, and then everything would be fine. Right now, they were on vacation. And Sasuke wanted him.

Naruto kissed him again, and this time, Sasuke reciprocated in a way that forcibly dragged Naruto out of his own thoughts. The Uchiha ran his hands down the front of Naruto's yukata before tugging the belt open, grinding them together slowly as they kissed. God_damnit_, any thought over than nervous, delighted, aroused excitement was completely lost on him. He couldn't remember ever wanting anyone this much. He scooped Sasuke close, fingers running down his back to dig into his ass, their tongues twining slowly as the kiss deepened. Heat was pooling inside of him, his erection stiffening back up rather quickly as he ran one of his hands over Sasuke's legs, pulling the belt of the yukata open.

Naruto couldn't get over how someone could look this good naked, even being all bruised and beaten to shit. But Sasuke was perfect. Androgynous, supple, slender, but fat where he needed to be and his legs rather muscular from running track. His stomach was tight, the kind of tight that girls deeply envied, not showing much sign of abdominal muscle but as Naruto ran his hand across it, it was hard. As if the muscles lied just underneath a quarter of an inch of fat. He was just… perfect. And the more Naruto felt him, the harder he got because _God_, how could someone like this exist. And why did he have to live in Japan? Why couldn't he have been in San Francisco all this time? Sasuke seemed to notice that Naruto's tempo was slowing down and he prodded him a little. "What are you doing?"

"…just…"

"Touch me."

Sasuke shrugged the yukata all of the way off, the material pooling on the futon. Naruto didn't need to be told again. He leaned forward to kiss him, his hand reaching to wrap around his cock and pump it slowly. The Uchiha jumped a little, but certainly didn't seem to protest, kissing him greedily and hips rocking a little into Naruto's hand. It felt… better. With someone else doing it. There was no reason for it to feel better, since the mechanics were nearly the same, but it did. He groaned softly into Naruto's mouth, making the blonde shiver deeply, Sasuke's legs trembling a little even as he tried to steady them. He wasn't really sure what Naruto wanted him to do, nor did he particularly care – he wasn't an idiot and although he was a virgin, he wasn't clueless. He reached out, blindly at first, and pushed Naruto's yukata off of his shoulders too, running one of his hands down Naruto's chest before reaching between his legs.

Naruto's stomach dropped so far out of his stomach he was afraid he might be sick. It was arousal like he couldn't remember _ever_ feeling as Sasuke wrapped his hand around his cock, pumping him distractedly. Immediately, the blonde's breathing patterns changed, so caught up in what was happening that he couldn't concentrate on kissing anymore. His eyes wandered over Sasuke, admiring him, wandered to the hand between his legs and shivered deeply, pumping Sasuke faster but not sure if he wanted him to get off or not. He didn't want this to be over. Not in five minutes, or ten, or thirty, or _ever_. But _oh_, Sasuke's hand was fucking divine. He wasn't perfect at it. And that's what made it so good. He'd been with plenty of girls in the past, and they'd been great at the time. But he'd never felt this much for any of them. He'd never loved any of them like he loved Sasuke. And nobody ever was _perfect_ until you were in love with them.

So, to Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke could have been the Greek God Eros. He could have been the amalgamation of all sexual love that has ever been, because that's what it _felt_ like. And just to hear the little gasps coming out of Sasuke's mouth might as well have been screams of pleasure. To Naruto, it could have been the same damn thing. He pushed Sasuke gently onto his back, sucking his throat briefly and too far in proximity for Sasuke to keep at it, but he didn't mind for right now. He ran his tongue over his clavicle, kissed him on the lips once, briefly, before wriggling down awkwardly. His knees rubbed into the floor in a way that wasn't pleasant, but he dipped between Sasuke's legs, kissing the tip of his erection and making the Uchiha _moan_ loudly. If Sasuke did this to him... shit. The image alone brought him frightening close to orgasm, to the point he had to bite his lip to contain himself.

He ran his tongue over him briefly before sucking him into his mouth, holding Sasuke's shaking legs apart. High, Sasuke didn't seem to care about the amount of noise he was making, which just made Naruto want him more. His breathing was ragged, groaning quietly and hands dropping to grasp at Naruto's head, and _mm_, it felt good. It felt better than the first time Naruto did it. They weren't cramped up inside the back seat of his car anymore, and he wasn't worried about a bystander seeing them. Or anyone seeing them. Or anything, really. He just felt _good_. And he knew that if he was loud enough, people _could_ hear. He knew this, but simply didn't care. All he cared about was not letting the pleasure get away from him. Sasuke shuddered darkly, looking down at Naruto who had slouched into a rather odd position, bobbing his head between his legs and jerking himself off slowly. _Mm_, his mouth…

The tension in his legs and his abdomen was rising, and he could feel it coming. He doubted it had been very long, but again, he just didn't care. He moaned loudly as Naruto stimulated him doing _something_ with his tongue that made his entire body jerk, the fingers in the blonde hair tightening and tearing out a few strands. "Ah… _ahh_...!"

Naruto pulled off of him so suddenly that Sasuke didn't exactly know what was happening at first, but once he grasped the situation, he made an exasperated, angry noise, eyes snapping open and sitting up. "What are you doing?"

"Getting something. Just stay there. You trust me, right?"

Sasuke nodded blearily. He had been close, but he could feel the orgasm melting away now, already becoming harder and harder to attain. Naruto came back a moment later holding a bottle, kissing him on the lips briefly. "Okay. Just… relax. You'll like it, I promise."

Oh, _that_. He was getting to that already?

Sasuke nodded again, keeping his legs spread apart as Naruto squeezed a small amount of clear fluid onto his fingers. Naruto couldn't really believe his luck. That this was happening at all. That it was happening with Sasuke. That Sasuke had just yelled at him for _not_ sucking him off. It was just too hot. He really, really wanted to get off, but at the same time, he sort of wanted to test his boundaries. Sasuke was 17. As much of a prude as he was in public, he couldn't always be that way. And judging from the fact that Sasuke seemed to understand his intentions entirely, he may have done this before. He slicked two of his fingers quickly before dragging Sasuke close by his hips, running a finger down the length of his cock before pressing it against his entrance. The Uchiha barely flinched, although the fluid was a bit cold, reaching between their legs to grip Naruto's cock and pump it slowly.

Naruto hitched, rather pleasantly surprised, tracing his finger in slow circles before pushing it inside. The look on Sasuke's face was priceless. He went from a half-concentrated, half-very spacy expression to rather rigid quite immediately, obviously _somewhat_ familiar with it or he might have started yelling at Naruto, but regardless rather uncomfortable all together. The hand wrapped around him slowed down further, barely remembering to move as Sasuke squirmed a little, and Naruto didn't move, just letting him adjust. "What are you doing?" Sasuke breathed it in this low way that was almost unbearable for Naruto to hear, it aroused him so much. God, everything he did was making him crazy, he was almost glad Sasuke had put off the sex. If they were having sex, he would be missing all of these little reactions. The tiny emotions and the shocks and the gasps and.. mm. It was so intimate.

"Move it around or something, that..." It didn't hurt, but. "-feels weird."

Naruto nodded warmly, guiding Sasuke's hand up and down his cock as he stirred him slowly, trying to find his prostate. He leaned forward and kissed him, soft and sweet, running circles inside of him to get him used to it. Sasuke was quieter now, obviously less stimulated, but he was looking more comfortable every minute. Even though Naruto was attempting to focus every _ounce _of attention he had into finding what was essentially his G-spot, he couldn't help groan softly as Sasuke pumped him faster, arousal pooling within him at an alarming rate. God, what he would do to hear Sasuke just gasp something like ('Okay. Okay, let's do it.'), but he was still so fucking satisfied right where he was right now.

Sasuke suddenly clenched _tight_ around his finger, back arching as he moaned "-_Naruto_, ah!" and a grin found itself on the blonde's face. There it was. About two inches deep inside of him at an odd little crook, but there it was. And judging by the way Sasuke's temperature had gone up at least five degrees, it hadn't been stimulated much _ever_. Naruto ran the pad of his finger over the spot, and Sasuke's hand dropped from his cock again, both of them gripping the sheets as he moaned. It was all Naruto could do to not just breathe out obscenities, watching him writhe, drawing the finger out slowly at first before grinding it back in, over his prostate.

Sasuke had done this to himself before, but similarly to the handjob Naruto had been giving him, it felt better when someone else did it. In this case, _exponentially_ better. Because Naruto didn't miss it, he just kept going over and over it, making the heat inside of him overflow like crazy, bringing him close to orgasm and then drawing him back from it over and over again. It was so _good_ he could barely make a sound, and all that came out were loud gasps as he clutched onto the futon. He could not iterate how good it felt. Could not _believe_ how good it felt. His legs were trembling like crazy and his toes were curled tight and "_Ahhhh_!" – why didn't he let him do it before? Do this before? He shuddered darkly, his stomach caving in and out with his deep breaths and he felt it coming. Heat, running from his groin up his body, all the way up to his scalp and all the way down to his toes, and his body was suddenly very rigid and he was _screaming_. Actually _screaming_. And the orgasm was so sudden that he couldn't be bothered to contain himself whatsoever, eyelashes fluttering darkly as semen coated all over his stomach.

Naruto was in shock.

He withdrew his finger as Sasuke finished and just _stared_, wanting so much to just screw him and to completely forget every problem they'd ever had. Sasuke was shaking from head to toe, overwhelmed, his skin still hypersensitive as Naruto ran a hand down his thigh.

Sasuke's eyes fluttered open after a minute or so, looking dazed. "Stay still."

Naruto blinked as Sasuke stretched, getting the feeling in his muscles back again, but didn't move, just watching him and eyes inevitably drifting to the cum all over his stomach. There would never be a way he could adequately capture this moment in a memory. Nor a picture, even if Sasuke allowed him to take one. The Uchiha sat up and kissed him once, hand wrapping around his cock again and this time without distraction. Sasuke watched him intently, staring at his cock in his expectant sort of way that Naruto could barely not laugh at, it was so cute. But after a moment or so of whatever Sasuke was waiting for, he took his hand away entirely and dipped between his legs, taking Naruto about halfway into his mouth without a word.

Naruto couldn't describe the immense amount of pleasure he was feeling right now. He just couldn't. Sasuke wasn't exceptional at what he was doing – he was clumsy, in fact – but the fact that it _was_ Sasuke made it the best oral he'd ever had, period. Sasuke's nose wrinkled up in distaste, obviously not prepared for how bitter Naruto's precum would taste, and started to work, mimicking the things Naruto had done that had made it so good for him. He kept his mouth as wide as he could so he didn't scrape him with his teeth and tried, _tried_ not to choke on it, but he couldn't help it. He gagged a little, and Naruto, who was breathing harshly and looking stunned, patted the top of his head in what the blonde thought was soothing, but came off very stupid. Sasuke drew his head back and forth, not fast the way Naruto could, but as quickly as he could while avoiding choking again.

He sucked at the head, running his tongue underneath as he caught his breath, looking up to see his boyfriend's face scrunched up in something that wasn't really sexy at all, but the fact that he was the one causing it made his stomach turn. He exhaled, sucking a bit too tightly before drawing him in again, as far as he would go, and Naruto just _groaned_ his name so obscenely.

He bobbed back and forth, getting the hang of it, expression dazed and skin still flushed from his own orgasm. He wasn't cumming fast enough (did that mean he was doing it wrong?) and he shuddered embarrassedly, one of his hands wrapping around the base of him and pumping back and forth what he couldn't fit in this mouth. Naruto's knees twitched sharply and he moaned, very pleased, so close and god, god, Sasuke was his. Sasuke was _his_. This was better than all of the awkward sex he had intended for them to have by a long shot. This was so much better.

"Sasuke, Sasuke! Sasuke! I love you! _Nn_, I love you and you're so good at this and _mm_, Sasuke… I'm… gonna…"

The Uchiha pulled off of him completely, pumping all of him _fast_ but not wanting to swallow it, and for whatever reason, he felt the compulsion to close his eyes and almost… brace. When he opened them, there was about two teaspoons of cum on his throat and clavicle, and Naruto was panting deeply.

"God, Sasuke. God. I love you. I love you."

_**TBC**_

Hello everyone! Firstly, I'd like to say I would have had this up _days_ ago, but there was a megastorm that resulted in our power out and our internet lost. Secondly, although it took me 3 weeks, I daresay it was worth the wait! This part of Chapter 16 is over 10,000 words long. The second part will be up, well. Whenever it's done, I suppose. A special thanks to **Corsetted Camellia** for beta reading this chapter, and a special thanks to my usual beta-reader, who gave me some pretty cold critique about the overall style and helped to make my fic better. I hope you guys enjoyed it, and please review! Reviews help me get chapters out faster, although unfortunately, all the reviews in the world couldn't stop the stupid storm. See ya'll in the second part of this chapter!_**  
**_


	17. Shine On, You Crazy Diamond: Part II

_**Brain Damage**_

_Chapter Sixteen: Part II_

Sasuke's alarm clock woke them both at 7AM, although Naruto rolled right back over and was content to sleep for another hour until he _had_ to wake. The Uchiha considered it quite a luxury to get to sleep in all the way till seven, so he got up without much fuss, heading into the bathroom for a shower. His high was long gone now, but the effects of their sex was drying and flaking away on his skin. It was really quite disgusting, and he had no idea why he had just rolled over and gone to bed instead of cleaning himself up. What was worse, the dried semen sort of returned to a coagulated shadow of its original state once wetted, which was even more disgusting. But regardless of all of that, he felt good. He was certainly more relaxed.

After his shower, he put the godforsaken brownies _away_, rethinking the night over and over in his head. He'd told Naruto about the painkillers. That was… stupid. Recreationally taking painkillers wasn't good. It wasn't as if he used speed, which would make you crazy _very_ quickly, but painkillers were extremely addictive and working a dependency at his age would bite him in the ass later. But he didn'thave a dependency. There was a difference between _addiction_ and _I am taking this to get high_. Naruto, of all people, should know that. After all, Sasuke was sure that the blonde had done more drugs than marijuana in his life. On that note, marijuana definitely wasn't Sasuke's drug of choice. It made him act like a fool and eat a _lot_, and his stomach was still hurting from the sheer amount of junk food he'd managed to ingest in such a short time.

He dressed in a t-shirt, a pair of jeans, and left a pair of hiking boots at the door to adorn on his way out. They would be walking around all day, and there was no reason for him to be wearing shoes that would just blister his feet. By the time Naruto's second alarm went off at 8AM, Sasuke was positively pristine.

"Hurry up, Naruto." The blonde threw a pillow over his head, and Sasuke frowned, kicking him lightly. "Breakfast is at 8:30 and I'll leave without you."

As much as Naruto didn't like the prospect of leaving the warm futons (both of theirs had been dragged together for a large, fluffy bed), he didn't want to be away from Sasuke, and the more awake he became, the more excited he got. Sasuke had given him a blow~job. And so what if he didn't swallow. Naruto had received oral from the sexiest thing since sex, and if he had anything to do with it, he would be getting several more throughout the day. Sasuke apparently wasn't in the mood right now, though, because he practically kicked Naruto into the bathroom, shouting something about needing to brush his teeth. By the time he'd managed to _really_ wake up, Naruto's mood had increased exponentially, and he kissed Sasuke happily no less than fifteen times before they left for breakfast.

The day's schedule involved a climb up a mountain (which Sasuke insisted wouldn't be that hard, despite skeptical looks from several members of their class), then going to a National Park for a few hours, and then going to yet another _boring_ museum before finally returning to the hotel. Something Naruto noticed over breakfast, as students chatted merrily or complained loudly, was that Kiba was staring at him with this annoyingly superior expression on his tattooed face. As if he _knew_ something no one else did. What made it annoying was that when Naruto _asked_ the little jackass about it, Kiba just laughed at him in that same annoyingly superior way and said "You should know." Sasuke scowled at him, which normally would be enough to shut anyone up, but not Kiba. Not today. Which was even more irritating.

Thoughts of Kiba were pushed out of Naruto's mind when they left for their hike, stomachs and waterbottles full. Naruto wished this trip could have been on a different weekend, because it just so happened that Halloween was on Monday and he was practically gushing with excitement. Halloween was not quite Naruto's favorite holiday, but it was second or third, easily. The best holiday in the _world_ was Christmas, and then there was Valentine's Day… and Thanksgiving was fun too (guess he wouldn't have one of those this year), but Halloween! Halloween was fantastic. As a child, he had trick or treated with his parents through various parks (the Haight Ashbury really wasn't a great place for a child to be on one of the craziest nights of the year), and when he got older, the parties and events in San Francisco were unbelievable. At fifteen, Naruto learned how to talk his way into all manner of age 21+ events, and he'd never had a Halloween weekend since then he hadn't just _loved_. Monsterfests, Haunted Bay, 3D Freak Fest, Sexorcism, a midnight showing of Rocky Horror, going on the Ghost Ship… it was so fun in America.

Naruto doubted the Japanese even celebrated Halloween. Or if they did, it would be some weird shadow of how Americans did it, sort of like how they celebrated Christmas. Even if Halloween was something of a big deal, it certainly wasn't gonna be anything special in teeny-tiny Kusatsu, where everyone was in bed by ten PM. A shame, too. His parents were throwing a party at the store, which could attract a few people, so maybe he'd go to that on Halloween night, which landed on the Monday they returned to Tokyo. But the best parties were happening thousands of miles away, back home. It was ritual for Uzumaki Naruto to _immediately_ start planning next year's costume on November 1st, and what was he supposed to be this year? Oh yeah. A ninja. The appeal was sort of lost on him now.

He glanced over at Sasuke as they walked down the street, unable to stop himself from grinning as the night's activities flashed into his memory again. He. Banged. Sasuke. Almost. Not really. Close enough, anyway. Naruto tried to picture Sasuke in a several different slutty Halloween costumes, but now that he'd seen him completely naked, the image really didn't work. His boyfriend was so bruised up that every time he imagined something showing a lot of skin, the mental image was sort of like… Sasuke stumbling out of a frat party on November 1st, hungover from the after effects of roofies and a really awful night. Which was _not_ what he wanted to picture. And the Uchiha wasn't really curvy enough to wear anything like that. He was sexy._ Sooo_ sexy. But not all girly-curvy sexy. Which Naruto had to admit was _slightly_ disappointing. He loved the female shape, and Sasuke just did not have one. He was more feminine than Naruto, yeah. But he didn't have curves.

Ohhh, but what would be a really hot Halloween costume for him? (At this point, Naruto had an extremely dazed expression as he followed the crowd of students. He was quite deep in thought.) Sasuke in one of Naruto's tye dye shirts - and nothing else. And someone might be inclined to say _Hey Naruto, that's not a costume_, Naruto would retort that at the Halloween Costume Express store he'd visited last year, there had been a _sexy Spongebob_ outfit, and anyone who wanted to argue with the idea that post-sex flower child Sasuke wasn't the hottest thing ever could simply go die in a fire. With lots of smoke and everything! Hmm. Who knows? Maybe he could have Sasuke wearing something of the sort on Halloween night. He shivered excitedly, looking him over.

"Do they have Japan here?"

Sasuke blinked. "…uh, what?"

"Er- not Japan." Naruto laughed at himself. "WHAT ARE WORDS. Anyway. Do they have Halloween? Y'know. Ha-ro-wiin." Sounded like heroin in his accent. "Costumes, candy, whatever. It's coming up in a couple days. Do you celebrate it here?"

Sasuke shrugged. "_I _don't. Some people do. In Tokyo, it can be a big deal depending on where you go."

"What about-" Oh, wow. How would you even say that in Japanese. He stumbled for a moment before deciding on the default option – saying it in English with a Japanese accent. Since Japanese had so many loan words (AKA foreign words – typically English – spoken in a jank-as-fuck accent because they didn't want to make their own words) it was usually what Naruto went back to whenever he got lost, linguistically. "Trick or treat." He figured saying _trick or treating_ would confuse Sasuke more. But to his surprise, Sasuke actually seemed to know what he was talking about.

"I heard about that. It's where kids get candy from people, right?" Naruto nodded his yes, and Sasuke continued. "I don't know. Halloween's gained popularity slowly over the past few years, but I have no idea if that custom has gone mainstream." He wrinkled his nose a little. "Frankly, I think it shouldn't."

Naruto looked as if Sasuke had told him he was taking a vow of celibacy. "What? WHAT? Of course it should! Trick or treating is the best _ever_. Running around in the dark in costumes, getting a shitton of candy, trading it with your friends, throwing away all the Dots because those taste like crap, counting all the pieces, eating nothing but Halloween candy and milk for lunch at school for a _week_… trick or treating is the _best_!"

"Actually, it's really dangerous. Especially in America, where everyone can own a gun."

Naruto frowned, looking put off, but nodded for his boyfriend to elaborate.

"Sending children in unfamiliar areas, dressed head to toe in costumes, surrounded by other people dressed in costumes, including many adults… it's a recipe for children to get attacked or abducted. And that's just children. All the people at parties, drinking and driving, it's ridiculous. It's absolutely ridiculous. I hope it never catches on here."

"Well, when we get married and have babies, our kids are going trick or treating."

"Okay. Fair enough. The day I give birth to _your children_ and they reach two or three, you can take them trick or treating."

The blonde giggled and threw his arms around him, slowing them both down as Sasuke kept walking under Naruto's considerable muscleweight. "Is there anything we can go to? A big Halloween thing. You said you've never been to one, but I can make you a costume and it'd be really fun. Seriously, it's the second best holiday. Well." Naruto paused briefly as Sasuke shook him off, nearly tripping over his own feet. "Yeah, I'd give it second best. First-best is Christmas, then Halloween, and third-best is Valentine's Day. But Valentine's Day will be better than all of them if I'm with youu~"

"Shut up, you idiot, you're embarrassing yourself."

Naruto grinned widely. "So can we go somewhere?"

"We can go to Tokyo Disneyland. A lot of the rides will be closed, but there's a big parade on Halloween and you get in free if you dress as a Disney character. There's also a thing at Kiddyland – the massive toystore in Harajuku. I mean, there's stuff all over, but I think Disneyland would be the best place to go."

Sasuke looked over and caught Naruto making probably the most misty-eyed expression he'd ever seen, and it made him blanch. Naruto's delusions that they would be together forever and apparently have children together were unsettling – as soon as he could, Sasuke was going to college and maybe just… leaving Japan altogether. Studying abroad sounded perfect. His cousin Shisui had studied abroad for most of his undergraduate studies, and threw together enough of a portfolio so he graduated with an art degree at the last minute. Although Sasuke had no idea what he really wanted to do with his life, maybe it would be that. Freelance photography. He knew his parents wouldn't approve, but it wasn't as if he had any say in the Uchiha company. That was for Itachi to inherit, and knowing Itachi, he'd take it places father than Fugaku or Mikoto ever could. But Itachi had _always_ been destined to take over the company. What was Sasuke there for? He just… didn't know.

Of course, if he asked his parents, they'd tell him to get a degree in business and work in the company with his brother. The idea was utterly repulsive, but he would do what he had to do. What he could _not_ do was go on letting Naruto think that someday, they were going to get married and have a house and a bunch of children running around. For obvious reasons, Sasuke would never be giving birth to anything in his life, _ever_. But even if they adopted, Sasuke couldn't imagine meeting the person he was going to be spending the rest of his life with at _seventeen_. And more importantly, they couldn't get married. The law said so, and with more force than the law would ever have, _Fugaku_ ensured that Sasuke would never marry a man. Not ever. So at some point, Sasuke would probably end up marrying some woman who could up his social status, who'd give birth to a couple of children and wouldn't assault their bank account too much indulging herself. And she'd be Japanese, of course, because introducing a foreigner would just be unsightly.

He sighed, and Naruto smiled at him. "I love you so much, Sasuke."

"I know." He took his boyfriend's hand and gave it a light squeeze. "I know, Naruto."

xxx

The hike wasn't too bad, though some of the students were thoroughly out of breath when they reached the top of the mountain and sat next to a rather unusually colored body of water. Kakashi, in teacher mode, explained to everyone that sulfur had changed the chemical content to give it that shocking blue color, but everyone was past caring. The students all tried to find somewhere with nice patches of sunlight to warm them up, as it had gotten _quite_ cold the higher they ascended, and a couple students took the liberty of passing out lunches, Sasuke included. Once everyone had been presented with their meal, he sat down next to Naruto, surprised to find that the blonde had separated them from his usual group of friends. He didn't mention it, though, just as Naruto hadn't mentioned the severe bruising while they were in the hot spring, tore the plastic wrappings off his bento and began to eat.

Sasuke hadn't noticed until now how there were plenty of people… looking at them. It wasn't an outright _stare_, but as the students ate, furtive glances were cast in their direction, some quite dark and some with a laugh in their eyes. He didn't know exactly what it meant, but it irritated him a little, though Naruto's presence by default sated him nicely. The blonde had his left arm wrapped around Sasuke's waist but did nothing more, chatting about their holiday plans and asking lots of questions about how Japanese people celebrated other holidays, like Christmas or Thanksgiving. It had taken Naruto several moments to realize exactly _why_ Thanksgiving wouldn't be celebrated in Japan (Sasuke had never heard of it himself) and he felt incredibly stupid for posing the question at all, so he quickly changed the subject.

He kissed his boyfriend a couple of times here and there, closed mouthed and chaste, just bare little expressions of the immense affection he held for Sasuke. He couldn't believe how in love he was. It was both a stomach sickness and a gentle lightheadedness, and it was absolutely wonderful. In his eyes, Sasuke could do no wrong. If anyone _else_ had told him he used painkillers recreationally and _frequently,_ Naruto would have blown a gasket and insisted they visit a counselor. But Sasuke? No. Instead, Sasuke got ravished. If anyone else insulted his friends or rolled his eyes in their presence as much as Sasuke did, he would have been pissed off about it, but no. Sasuke was perfect. Absolutely perfect. Nothing in the world had ever been more sacred than Uchiha Sasuke, and nothing ever would be. And if that was dramatic, Naruto sure as hell didn't care. He was in love. Tons of people _never_ fell in love.

And before he could even think of a reason why, he blurted out "I'm sorry."

Sasuke blinked, looking up from his food. "For what?"

Naruto shifted uncomfortably. "For… all those times I stressed you out. And all those times you told me I needed to keep in check and I didn't listen. For outing you to your brother and cousin. For when I came to Japan and saw you and I kissed you without asking, and I wouldn't leave you alone. I bet that was really creepy. I should have tried to help myself. I touched you a lot when you said you didn't want me to, and I didn't respect you at all. I don't even know why I did it. I mean, I creeped on you a _lot_ in retrospect. And I know how I was feeling then, and it was totally bullshit because I know I was hurting you, and I know that if a teacher had told your dad, he would have freaked his shit on you and you might have gotten taken out of school. And I'm just. I'm just really sorry. I was kind of a bastard. I just liked you so much. But that isn't an excuse. I didn't even know you, I was just infatuated. And it wasn't romantic or cute, how I acted. It was bullshit. And I know that now. And I didn't want to say I was sorry because I didn't want you to remember it. I kind of wanted us to pretend that didn't happen. But I figure that I should acknowledge that what I did was wrong, because it was, and now I really am in love with you and I don't want you to hold that against me. If you can. If you can't forgive me, it's okay too. I don't really deserve it. I know I must have really stressed you out and it was totally unnecessary. You were just doing your thing and it wasn't even fair. I'm sorry. I'm really, _really _sorry. And I really do love you."

Sasuke stared at him for a moment before nodding shortly.

"I love you too."

_I forgive you_ went unsaid. It needn't be. After all, no one is perfect until you're in love with them. Then, they can do no wrong.

xxx

The day passed in a warm daze. Sasuke took photographs to commemorate it, since his attentions were glazed at best. The class seemed to enjoy the national park. A few students played Frisbee, including Naruto, though Sasuke hadn't bothered. Everyone did a bit of shopping during the hour Kakashi gave them, and Sasuke briefly rejoined Suigetsu, Karin, and Juugo. Suigetsu expressed irritation that they hadn't hung out in such a long time. Karin's infatuation with him seemed to instantly rekindle after a few words with him, and she didn't bother keeping her hands to herself. Juugo commented on how different he looked. Happier, and maybe even a bit healthier. They parted with promises of telephone calls and maybe hanging out together when they all returned to Tokyo, but the promises were empty on Sasuke's part. His friend's cruelness was unmistakable, and it used to be a quality in them he rather liked. In parting from them, however, and spending more time with Naruto's friends, he actually found it a bit offensive. For the first time ever.

The trip to the museum was skipped entirely, much to Naruto's delight and Sasuke's chagrin, and they walked back to the hotel, the general temperament rather positive. The blonde was a bit depressed that this would be his last night alone with Sasuke, but reminded himself to make a point of securing weekends for them again. Maybe he'd be able to swing a hotel once a month. He had a decent amount of money saved from his job, money that usually would have gone towards auto insurance and gas, but he'd sold his car before he'd left for Japan and cancelled his insurance policy. He'd used the money to indulge here and there, but his account still had quite a bit of money left in it, so maybe they could make this a regular thing. Maybe he and Sasuke could start doing this often, but still in relative secrecy. He could make this work. _They_ could make this work, he knew they could.

They went to the hot springs for awhile, and Naruto kept his hands to himself since there were plenty of other people there, enjoying the water. Several fresh bruises (hickeys) had sprung up on Sasuke's body, and a couple on Naruto's neck, which made Kiba grin but nobody teased them about it. Maybe out of fear of what would happen – the blonde would probably blush and grin happily, but Sasuke wouldn't take it nearly so admirably. They dried off before dinner and French kissed to pass the time, a tangle of limbs as Sasuke pushed Naruto into walls, into bed, humming and enjoying the feel of large, masculine hands over his figure and letting himself drop inhibitions. He remembered how he'd behaved the night before (goddamnit) and had essentially decided that the best way to recover from the embarrassment of his slutty behavior was to continue it - make it as though he always acted that way in bed. Or maybe he just wanted Naruto, and he was justifying it to himself.

Dinner was fantastic. It was international night, which entailed a slightly Japanese take on dishes from all over the world, and it was much more filling than traditional cuisine. Sasuke ate much more than he had the night before, and Naruto served himself liberal amounts of anything that didn't look Asian. By the end of the meal, he'd managed to try everything that looked as though it had been fried, all of the pastas, dared to try the pizza (and nearly gagged on it. The Japanese cooks had decided to put mayonnaise on it for some _ungodly_ reason) and finished off the meal with a generous helping of ice cream. Most of the students seemed to be imitating Naruto's eating habits, to the distress of the cooks and waitresses, who were fighting to keep up with the students that were inhaling their hard work.

Naruto had considered going back to the hot springs, since he was nice and full now, but instead he and Sasuke retired to their room for the night. It wasn't really _late_, but they had an early leave time the next day, and according to Sasuke, they'd need the sleep. The Uchiha disappeared into their bathroom for a shower, and Naruto (who usually took showers in the morning to wake up) changed into his pajamas and slid into the futon, feeling so content. It hadn't really sunk in fully yet, but he just kept saying it to himself. _Sasuke loves me_. It made him tremble with delight. _Sasuke loves me_. It was unbelievable. And incredible. And just. Wow. He couldn't wrap his mind around it, around the pleasant tug in his stomach, around the utter delight that was _Sasuke loving him_. He said it. Out loud. And not when he was high or drunk with lust, either. Just in the middle of the day, eating rice at the top of a mountain in Kusatsu. Sasuke loved him and everything was perfect.

He sighed and burrowed into the covers, so relaxed and so happy that he didn't even consider the implications of what Sasuke loving him _meant_. That was for another day. Today, nothing could touch them. Nothing hurt.

Sasuke came out of the shower fully dressed, presumably having toweled off and clothed himself inside, and Naruto looked up at him, smiling a bit dreamily. Sasuke didn't really smile back – not the way _Naruto _smiled – but his lips quirked upward just slightly, and it made the blonde's heart soar.

They had packed their things up earlier, and as the Uchiha got into bed with him, both of their stomachs flipped nervously. It was cute, really. For a moment or so, they just stared at each other, before Naruto tentatively leaned forward to kiss him, and Sasuke met it, not hesitant but _hungry_. Sasuke pushed forward, not just his lips but his body, even if he only budged an inch, and it was… Naruto didn't know what it was. The fact that it turned him on in an almost unbearable way just went without saying. But Sasuke's assertiveness was positively delectable. It mirrored a fraction of how Naruto felt _all the time_. Just wanting to ravish him, bend him over, make him scream, since the first day they met. It was almost a rite of passage, that being around Sasuke made him feel this way. Made his knees weak and the bottom of his stomach drop out and God. It was too much.

He scooped Sasuke up into his lap, kissing him slowly at first but open mouthed, their tongues twining and teeth awkwardly bumping together every now and then. Neither Sasuke nor Naruto seemed to fit together, though it certainly would have been more romantic if they did, a pair of long lost lovers whose bodies seemed puzzle pieces for the other. But no, it wasn't like that. Naruto turned his head, deepening the kiss and squeezing Sasuke's waist, feeling his cock harden up considerably at the friction coming from Sasuke's slow, _deep_ grinds. They might not have puzzle piece bodies, but they seemed to be _thinking_ the same thing, or maybe it was just wishful thinking on Naruto's part. He slid his hands down, cupping Sasuke's backside and digging his fingers into the skin, and the Uchiha not only didn't resist it, but leaned forward so far that derably that Naruto was flat on his back as they kissed.

A low, shuddering moan passed between them, and Sasuke wasn't really sure who it had come from. All he was concentrating on was making the most of this while they were here, in Kusatsu, far away from the disapproving eyes of his father. He was in love. For the first time in his life. And that was _horrifying_. It ensured significant pain on the other side of this, because he knew it wasn't going to work. Something would happen, maybe a month or six months or a year from now – but it would happen. And they would be pulled apart from each other. Sasuke wouldn't talk to anyone for weeks. He wouldn't eat much, or sleep much. Being forcibly removed from Gaara – and he hadn't even been in love then – had been horrible. He'd been depressed before then, so he couldn't really base his behavior then on the future, impending heartbreak that was Uzumaki Naruto, but he knew it'd be unbearable. So now, he was going to make the most of it. There was no point in pushing Naruto away, really, not when they had one night left to feed their own fantasies. Sasuke assumed Naruto's fantasies entailed getting married and having babies, but Sasuke's were far more basic. _Asylum_. Which made him sound like some kind of prisoner, but really, he sort of was. All he wanted was asylum from his family. To be able to pretend like he actually had some amount of control over his own life. Just pretending like there would never be any real repercussions from this was enough.

So he kissed Naruto like this would be their last night together. It probably wasn't – they'd sneak away, maybe mess around in the backseats of cars, disappear into Naruto's room on Sunday afternoons, get away with what they could. But this? Just the two of them, in their own room, with no worry about parents walking in or even _finding out_, this was what he wanted. He kissed Naruto deeply, grinding their hips together and gasping as sparks of pleasure seemed to erupt in his abdomen, tangling his fingers in his hair. If the blonde was surprised by him, he wasn't showing it, instead opting to grind up into Sasuke's ass, his swollen erection _very_ obvious as Naruto purred. His hands, which had settled themselves firmly on Sasuke's ass, moved up to push his pajama pants down, and the Uchiha went very still for a moment before putting his hands on Naruto's chest and pushing his shirt up.

"Sasuke, I-"

"Let's do it."

Naruto's heart actually seized for a moment in his chest. "A-are you sure, heartbreak?"

"Yes. Don't ask me again."

He didn't. A sense of bizarre, genuine elation washed over him, replacing the painful arousal if only for a moment, before he claimed Sasuke's lips again, a slow, deep kiss that sent them both reeling. He couldn't believe it. Naruto kissed him until he couldn't breathe, panting as he rolled them over so Sasuke was underneath him, pushing the his shirt off his back and pulling off his own. He'd gotten a beautiful view of Sasuke yesterday, but he seemed more _real_ today. Freshly cleaned from his shower, a bit of warm moisture clinging to his skin, his muscles sore from climbing up the mountain, and no drugs in his system to blame later. It was just them. He ran his fingers over Sasuke's throat, tracing them over his jutting collarbones, down his clavicle and over his pectorals, pausing briefly to pinch a nipple affectionately before tracing all the way to his navel. "You're gorgeous."

Sasuke laughed dryly at that, but Naruto continued. "You'd look really cute with a bellybutton piercing." He dipped down and kissed Sasuke's navel, before pulling up and kissing his lips again.

"…do you have what we need?"

Naruto blinked for a moment, too wrapped up in Sasuke to get what he meant for a moment, before he blushed handsomely, nodding. "Y-yeah. Right. Um. Don't go anywhere."

He pulled off of his boyfriend, reluctantly at that, but was pleased to find that Sasuke was completely erect now. He quickly walked over to his orange suitcase and unzipped it, tearing through the very _neatly_ packed clothing and souvenirs and grabbing the condoms and lubricant. No sense in not using protection. Although he'd never outright asked, he was almost positive Sasuke was a virgin, so it was pretty much 100% that he didn't have any STDs. Still, you never know. And HIV could be contracted mother-to-child, so there was that to consider. Behind him, Sasuke sat up, looking pensive and chewing on his thumb. He'd given up outright _biting_ his fingernails when he moved to Japan, along with plenty of other safe, secure habits of his, but his stomach was flipping nervously. This was it.

Naruto returned to the bed and planted a kiss on Sasuke's lips again, setting the items on the floor next to their futon. Although the blonde had never actually deflowered anyone before, losing his virginity was _really_ awkward. And he would do his best to make it better for Sasuke, but, well. Sex was kind of awkward. It was a fact. "I'll just put those there, until…" Damn, he wasn't making it better. He closed his mouth again, but couldn't help a nervous laugh, running his hands over Sasuke's shoulders. "God, I love you. I love you so much. I'm so happy."

Sasuke leaned forward and kissed him again, slower and less aggressive this time, letting their lips connect softly for a few moments before opening his mouth and running his tongue over Naruto's lips. His heart was racing, and he was _very_ hard, not that it was too awful because the pajama pants he wore were loose and roomy, but the need for him _was_ bad. It was severe. One of Naruto's arms snaked around him, pulling him closer and running his hand down Sasuke's front to push the elastic waist of the sweats down. Naruto always closed his eyes when kissing, he simply couldn't help it, but he jumped in surprise when he found he only had to push one layer of fabric down to have Sasuke completely nude. He bought back a laugh at the idea of his prudish little boyfriend having been planning this, maybe even taking a cold shower so he could feign surprise when they started kissing. But no, his skin was too warm for his shower to have been cold, and as Naruto's hands ran between Sasuke's legs, he felt his own temperature spike a solid degree or two.

He wrapped his hand around Sasuke's cock, thumbing the dark pubic hair around it briefly before pumping it slow and thick, a thrill running through him not unlike the first time he did this. It wasn't anywhere near getting old, and he watched Sasuke's eyes as his boyfriend's face flushed a little, pressing closer into him and humping his hand encouragingly. How any virgin could be so hot, he just- _God_. Not even that. How anyone could be this hot was unbelievable. Naruto leaned forward to kiss him again, just to keep himself occupied, adopting a rather slow and steady rhythm to jerk him off at. Sasuke's eyes were already closed, enjoying Naruto's touch and comfortably forgetting himself, and he only really seemed to remember where he was when his and Naruto's lips connected again. He dropped his hands to push Naruto's pajama pants down, but found (to his irritation) that in their current position, his arms weren't long enough to get them very far.

Naruto laughed at this, which sent an angry blush to Sasuke's cheeks, and used his free hand to push his pants down entirely to set himself at an equal playing field with Sasuke. Completely exposed. This seemed to sate Sasuke slightly, and he relaxed a little in Naruto's hands, grinding into his palm and letting the warmth of sexual gratification take him over. He was bottoming. He knew that. The idea wasn't a comfortable one, really – for one, he could do something to embarrass himself so irreparably that no matter how many _I love you_s were exchanged, the mortification would never be undone. For another, he'd seen… pornography. And the bottom never really looked comfortable. He was glad they were doing this tonight, though. It would have quite literally been a pain in the ass to hike up a mountain after having sex. (God help him, he was about to have sex.)

He felt a drip of precum wet Naruto's fist and opened his eyes again, a low purr he only just noticed he was emitting ceasing at once. The look on the blonde's face basically summed up _exactly_ how they both felt. His eyes were hazy with lust, but he also looked apprehensive as hell, and his jaw was tightened in concentration. Sasuke put his hand on Naruto's wrist, stopping him. "Don't… do that much more." The color in his face deepened. "I don't want to get off now. I don't know how many times I can do it."

Naruto stopped all at once, and Sasuke's hips bucked feebly of their own accord. "Yeah. Um, you're right. So…"

"…so."

Wow, this was really awkward. People in movies made it seem so… natural.

"So you should probably start, er… preparing me, unless I have to do it."

God, for all he was behaving like, Naruto was the one acting like a goddamn virgin. (Pull yourself together, idiot! Don't just _stare_ like a friggen blubbering… whatever. PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER.) Naruto nodded and kissed Sasuke again, grabbing the bottle of lubricant and pushing Sasuke's legs apart. He didn't know if it was even _possible_ to not hurt him during this, but he was going to do his fucking best to make it happen. Even if it meant preparing him to the point where Sasuke wasn't even buzzing the way he was now – and he was. Positively _humming_ with arousal. And that made Naruto just _burn_ for him. It was so hard to contain himself, and his hands were shaking as he squeezed the lubricant onto his fingers. It was about room temperature, but between Sasuke's legs it'd feel ice cold, though he knew Sasuke would be expecting it this time. He pulled them close together and dropped his hand back down again, squeezing Sasuke's erection just once before dropping much lower and pressing a finger inside.

It was just as exciting as it had been yesterday, and Sasuke flinched a little in Naruto's arms, but no words of discomfort were exchanged. The Uchiha had resolved to be a man about this – as much of a man as he could be, being penetrated by another man. But he wasn't going to whine and he _certainly_ wasn't going to squeal, although if Naruto were good enough to earn a scream, Sasuke wasn't going to hold it back. Still, this was uncomfortable. He'd expected it to be, and he knew it was going to get worse, so he tried to relax, crooking his neck so Naruto could latch onto it and leave a series of divine little hickies trailing down his bruised throat. And for now, Sasuke wasn't worried about his parents discovering hickies – or even his brother. He was just enjoying it, and even allowed himself the courtesy of a sweet little moan, which seemed to encourage Naruto as he stirred his finger inside of him.

Naruto wasn't really searching for his prostate, but concentrating more on stretching him out, which had to be uncomfortable but Naruto wasn't exactly… small. And Sasuke would _kill him_ if he had to miss track because of this. He hummed, sucking sweetly over his boyfriend's clavicle, adding a second finger and scissoring them apart. The amount of lubricant inside of him was probably overkill, but he just wanted to be careful, and he worked him slowly, grinding his hips into the futon a little as his own cock was _more_ than ready for this. So far, Sasuke seemed to be taking this really well. He wasn't squirming more, or clenching too much, or making any noise that suggested he was in any pain at all. Naruto sighed, leaning up to kiss him again, his other hand drifting up to pinch one of Sasuke's nipples.

"… what are you doing? 'm not a girl…"

Sasuke's breath was heavy, both hands clutching into the futon's fabric.

"It'll feel good."

Naruto kissed his lips again once, for good measure, before ducking lower and kissing the nipple again, clearly enjoying himself. Sasuke laid back entirely, hitching as the fingers inside of him began to pump in and out, fucking him slowly and splicing apart on every other stroke. The mouth on his chest didn't really feel good on a level he could acknowledge, but his skin prickled with electricity and every now and then, his knee would twitch involuntarily. One of Naruto's fingers rubbed up against his prostate, sending a pool of heat into his abdomen so fierce and so sudden that Sasuke's entire body jerked, a low rumble of a moan trapped deep in his throat.

Whatever indication Naruto was looking for as to when Sasuke would be ready, it seemed to have made itself evident because he pulled his fingers out and wiped the lubricant still clinging to them off on the sheets. He detached his mouth from Sasuke's now very _red_ nipple and looked his boyfriend in the face, which was extremely flushed and his lips were dark and swollen from biting them. Naruto's cock twitched appreciatively, and he crooned, running a hand slowly up Sasuke's thigh. "Wanna do it like this? Or with you turned over?"

Sasuke wiped the sweat off his forehead with his arms, his legs shaking a little and his cock practically _straining_, he was so ready. Not ready for what being on the receiving end of anal felt like – he wasn't at all sure if he was ready for that, but he was _so_ ready to get off. "This is fine."

Naruto blushed nervously, smiling and kissing him again before picking up one of the condoms and tearing it open. At least it wasn't expired. That would have been the icing on the cake of nervous tension that had been baking in his stomach. Sasuke didn't really know what he was doing, so it wasn't his fault, but Naruto had lost his virginity _ages_ ago, and had bedded plenty of beautiful people in San Francisco to the point that sex was a fine art for him. And until Sasuke, Naruto's type had been very curvy blondes, who had tan lines from wearing bikinis or wetsuits down at the bay. He'd always found tanlines to be almost unfairly sexy. But Sasuke was a _very_ far cry from the beach girls Naruto dated in California – he was better. He was so much better. The Uchiha sat up, his abdomen feeling very strange now that he was stretched and full of lubricant, gasping at the heat that was making its way to his toes and up to the crown of his head.

"What did you _do_?" His legs were trembling violently.

Naruto's hand froze from where he was about to roll the condom onto himself. "Are you hurt?"

"N-_no_, it's… really warm."

"Oh! Yeah. It's supposed to do that. I got a new one at the store today since we used all of the other stuff yesterday, and…" He stalled a little, watching Sasuke's face. "…is it bad?"

"_No_, it's just… shut up, just stop talking-"

"Okay, okay! Sheesh."

Naruto smiled and kissed Sasuke's forehead, his heart fluttering a little as he pushed Sasuke's legs back apart. He slid the condom on, grimacing a little (they'd both need to get tested so they could do away with these abominable things) and settling himself between Sasuke's thighs. He looked him over once, at all the bruises and hickies and swollen skin and _everything_ that made Sasuke himself, and groaned appreciatively before pressing _slowly_ inside. It wasn't an all-encompassing, mindblowing experience on the face of it, but it was tight and very _hot_, hotter than he'd expected and it made Sasuke moan _loudly_, even louder than Naruto. He took it slow, not wanting to tear him or worse, have him bleeding, shivering as his boyfriend clenched and fluttered around him. The further he got, the more stimulating it was, and he groaned lowly, holding Sasuke's legs apart as his stomach jolted so nicely.

The Uchiha was squirming under him, lips pursed together as the lubricant did its work to force him into enjoying this, even though it hurt. It didn't hurt a _lot_, but it certainly wasn't comfortable, but the heat that was buzzing inside him along with the way Naruto's cock ground into his prostate was just… good. It was really good. And just like that, he wasn't a virgin anymore. He clenched sharply, legs shaking a little and a line of sweat running down his forehead. At the last inch, Naruto's hips bucked forward of their own accord, and he was fully seated inside him, his cock almost crushed with how tight it was. "Uhh, omigod… Sasuke. You feel really _good_, hooooly shityou'resotight."

Naruto took one of his hands off Sasuke's leg and bit it _hard_, fighting back the need to just cum immediately, but it was so hard not to. He was so damn tight, and he kept twitching inside so even though he wasn't actually moving, he was still being stimulated and _ugh_. Sasuke was fucking _perfect_. Underneath him, he was shifting again, seeming to get less and less comfortable by the minute before he finally muttered "…you're supposed to move."

The blonde couldn't help but laugh at this, leaning down to give Sasuke an affectionate peck on the lips. "I know, stupid. I'm trying to not… 'cuz you feel so good, and…"

"If you cum too fast and ruin this for me I'll _maim you_."

"I can't help it!"

"Well find a way and _move_!"

Naruto groaned but didn't respond further, drawing out of Sasuke almost completely and shivering as the cold air brushed over him. In the moments he was out of him, it was almost unbearable, a deep dissatisfaction that couldn't even be described, but he heeded Sasuke's words, he thrust back into him, not too fast but _deep_, grinding heavily into his prostate and making them both shudder. It took a couple of more slow, steady thrusts like this before Sasuke's body got used to him being there, and the resistance dissipated nicely with each thrust. His aim wasn't perfect, far from it, but underneath him Sasuke was groaning, his legs twitching every now and then and precum dripping in a stream from the tip of his cock. He mewled, pleasure beginning to wash over him dangerously, and bit his hand again, pulling Sasuke's legs over his shoulders and setting his pace.

Sasuke wasn't screaming – in fact, he didn't seem to be the screamer type at all. He was, however, enjoying it, despite how bizarre it felt. As Naruto entered him, he felt a wash of sickness run over him _every time_, passing nausea that would be pushed away the moment Naruto hit his prostate. His body seemed to be battling itself, not knowing how to behave, but his hands tightened on the futon and he gasped, clenching viciously around Naruto. It felt _good_, yes. That was what he had decided. Even the faint illness that took him every time Naruto slammed in couldn't compare to how deliciously weightless he felt. Naruto was taking him _fast_ now, and it felt better than slow and deep. Slow and deep, he could feel the pain all the way into the back of his throat, and the smell of latex made him dizzy, a scent he would forever associate with sex. But fast, Naruto forgot to thrust as far into him, and since his prostate was hardly deep inside him, it meant he was stimulated more.

And more. And more.

Naruto slammed in again and his whole body shook with a sensation that was so close to being an orgasm, he was amazed to find he hadn't. Fierce heat overtook him, crawling from his abdomen and spreading to the top of his head and all the way down to his feet, and he _screamed, _almost tearing the sheets in half as his whole body tightened up. "Again!"

Naruto was breathless, doing everything he could to not cum too fast, but he wouldn't be able to if Sasuke tightened up like that again. He repeated the movement, not really thinking about it, and the way his lover's body tightened around him, the way Sasuke _screamed_ for him, wrenched orgasm out of him in a manner so ruthless it wasn't far. His whole body melted as endorphins rushed through him, cumming _hard_ and absolutely blowing his mind as he ejaculated into Sasuke, body shaking like crazy as he kept thrusting to ride it out. Sasuke tensed underneath him, realizing what was happening, and threw his hips down, angling his hips so Naruto hit his prostate dead on and groaning in agony. It wasn't really pain he was feeling, it was so far _from_ that, but he wanted to get off so badly that his whole body was shaking like he was about to die.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't, you're so tight, _augh_, Sasuke-" Naruto was rambling above him. "I'msorryI'msorry. Give me a few minutes."

And then Naruto was pulling out of him. His eyes snapped open and he was _livid_. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Changing condoms, this one's _full_, idiot!"

"You're an idiot!"

"I know, I know! I tried to hold back but I hadn't gotten off today and you just… you have _no_ idea how good you feel, Sasuke, I couldn't help it, _ugh_. Just give me a few minutes."

A few minutes turned out to be ten minutes. And Sasuke was not happy. The sensation that he was seconds away from the most intense orgasm he'd ever had disappeared, although his erection certainly didn't. He considered having Naruto fix it for him, but decided against it. He wanted to _try_ getting off with just Naruto inside of him. The blonde wasn't as mortified as he thought he would be, really. He was too satisfied to be embarrassed, and seeing Sasuke, twitching and shaking and yelling at him because he wanted _more_ sex was… he just couldn't complain. It took ten minutes, but the moment he was recovered, he sighed and kissed Sasuke's cheek, mumbling another apology that the Uchiha looked a little too irritated to forgive. But forgiveness or not, Sasuke turned over, sitting on his hands and knees and looking back at him. "I want it like this."

Naruto, who was hard again but not achingly so, blushed _darkly_, rolling the second condom on and squeezing Sasuke's ass. "Okay." He nodded again, eyes trailing over Sasuke's body. It was drenched in sweat and looked absolutely _edible_, and his heart thudded delightfully. "God, you're mine, aren't you? You're really mine." He hadn't meant to say it out loud, but he didn't regret a thing when it did. Naruto was high. He was so, so happy. So in love. And it was returned. And he _had_ Sasuke now, in every way. And it was all going to work out. He planted a soft kiss on Sasuke's back before pushing in again, and although his boyfriend's body had had ten minutes to recover from the trauma, he was still very slick inside and nicely stretched, so he met little resistance. He groaned softly, letting his hands rest at Sasuke's hips before shifting them to an angle, so Naruto would only hit his prostate, drawing out and pushing back in, at a moderate pace. He wanted Sasuke to really enjoy it.

Having Naruto back inside him quelled a fundamental desire that he'd been battling with, a terrible need to have something – _anything_ – inside of him to fill him and fuck him and make him scream and writhe. He didn't know at what point he got so needy for this, but he let out a sigh as Naruto re-entered him and the tension died away, arching his back as Naruto resumed thrusting into him, and this time, it felt more intimate. Less awkward. They both knew what to expect, and this time, it felt more like what he'd expected it to feel like when he'd masturbated to thoughts of Naruto doing this. It felt good. He wasn't screaming himself hoarse, but little "ah!"s spilled out of him at every inward thrust, and they didn't lie. He felt good. His skin burned and his body ached but it was so, _so good_.

At some point, his arms gave out and he just dropped, cheek resting in a pillow and his arms trembling as he struggled to right again, Naruto's pace picking up and his cock slamming back and forth into his prostate. He _groaned_ weakly, heat blowing through him, the pleasure so intense that there wasn't a point in trying to make himself seem more prudish. Sex made him feel so aware, and his body so out of his own control. His jaw slacked, one of his eyes closed and the other open but hazed with lust, his hips slamming back to meet Naruto's thrusts without him trying, his knees wanting to buckle but all basic pain being tolerated in favor of the orgasm he could feel nearing. He didn't know how long they'd been at it, but it felt like ages.

Naruto's hands were tight on Sasuke's hips, sweat running down his cheek as he watched his boyfriend unravel underneath him. He was more in control now, but twenty minutes of Sasuke bent over and submitting to him and Naruto doubted he could do this much longer. He groaned and _slammed_ into Sasuke's prostate with brutal force, rather intent on getting him to cum before he did, squeezing him and doing everything in his power not to spank him. He was so luscious. And as much as he didn't want it to stop, he wanted to feel Sasuke cum. Just from him. Just from this. He licked his lips and slammed in once, twice, biting his lip as Sasuke screamed from each assault on his prostate and squeezing his hips so tightly. "God, I love you. I love you Sauske. So much."

Sasuke's back arched violently, such a deep curve that it would have probably hurt on any normal day, his cock twitching once before he came _hard_. It made him melt, sent pleasure through him so forcefully that he felt something in the back of his throat, that it made him lightheaded, made him hypersensitive, made him absolutely _insane_ for the moment that it was, as he ejaculated messily onto the futon. His whole body clenched forcefully and it felt like a deathgrip around Naruto's cock, squeezing the life and easily the orgasm out of him as he emptied into the condom. Both of them were breathing hard, unable to form words, and they stayed connected for at least a good minute or so after they had finished cumming before Naruto finally pulled out. Just moving his legs long enough to throw the condom away sent sparks of pleasure through him, aftershocks of orgasm as his endorphin flooded body tried to ready itself, and Sasuke rolled over onto his back, eyes closed and his face looking so _shagged_.

Naruto hobbled into bed with him, and both of them were silent for a while, quiet and content in their post-orgasmic bliss. The first of them to speak, after a long time, was Sasuke, and he mumbled something into Naruto's neck that he couldn't make out.

"…mm. What?"

He spoke again, barely above a mumble, but Naruto heard it this time. "Need new blankets."

The blonde looked down and blushed a bit, nodding. Sasuke had ejaculated onto their futon, and he had cum a _lot_. And since Sasuke was looking too thoroughly ravished to move, Naruto took it as a hint that he was the one who had to go get something fresh. He stumbled onto his feet and scooped the blanket up, tossing it haplessly into a corner and grabbing a fresh one. He crossed the room back to him and covered them both up in it, sighing comfortably and lacing his arms around Sasuke's shoulders.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

xxx

They showered together in the morning, since they both needed it. Naruto gave Sasuke a rather apologetic blowjob when he found how sore he was, and although Sasuke had a couple of emergency painkillers with him (just as he always did), he certainly didn't refuse oral sex. Naruto was a bit sloppy, but it was still really good. The blonde hadn't asked for anything in return, either, and they left for breakfast both in _very_ good moods, although Sasuke's was subdued. Several students gave them knowing looks, not unlike the expression Kiba had had the day before, but as they quietly ate their omelets, neither of them _really_ minded. Not even Sasuke.

After breakfast, they packed the trunks of the bus full of their luggage and, with a mournful look at the hotel, Naruto and Sasuke were off. Back to reality. Most of the students slept through the trip, and many were excited to be getting home. Sasuke had received a text from Shisui letting him know that he'd be picking him up, and Naruto would apparently have to catch the bus home, since his parents were very busy with Halloween business. Kushina's decision on how _big_ the affair at the Haight Ashbury was going to be was sort of last minute, so now she and Minato were spending all of their time and energy booking bands, making Halloween themed sweets, decorating the store, and handing out fliers to let people know about it. Naruto didn't really resent them, though, Sasuke assured him that Shisui would give him a ride home. He was, unlike the other Uchihas Naruto had been exposed to, quite fair and even a little eccentric.

As everyone else slept, Naruto and Sasuke just enjoyed each other's company. They sat in the back of the bus, eating candy and talking in hushed voices, both still a little tired and Sasuke nicely numbed out from the half a Percocet he'd taken. He'd have taken the full one, but he didn't want to come off like the drug addict Naruto worried he was, and so while the effects were strong, they'd wear off faster. He'd take a whole one when he got home, he supposed. The drive felt so much shorter going the other way, and it was something of a morose occasion for him. Naruto would be going back to his loving parents, to their store to ice cookies to look like pumpkins and to play with the tiny black kittens that Minato had brought into the store one day, and had since never left. Sasuke, on the other hand, would be going home; to the worried eyes of his mother and the stern hand of his father.

He was deeply envious of Shisui, despite that he had no right to be. He always had been. Shisui had enjoyed Itachi's friendship uninhibited, while Sasuke had been put through it in an awkward, protected shadow of what brotherhood was supposed to be. Shisui had been all over the world, and had gotten to study what he wanted, and was selling paintings in beautiful galleries in Tokyo, just living his life. Enjoying it. But at the same time, Shisui wasn't something to be envied. His father had left and his mother was dead. His freedom came only from having _no family_, and Sasuke couldn't imagine not having a family. He sighed tiredly, squeezing Naruto's hand and watching the countryside go by. Rice paddies, everywhere. He felt his phone go off, but ignored it, too content with wringing the last bit of their fantasy out.

He felt Naruto's lips press against his forehead, and sighed.

(I love you.)

(I love you too.)

They arrived too soon. Students woke each other up, accidentally hit each other as they squeezed their luggage out of the overhead compartments, and many looked as if they'd rather be nowhere else than off the bus. Sasuke and Naruto took their time. They kissed briefly as they made their way very slowly down the aisle, just here and there when no one was looking. Even if someone had been looking, the idea of Naruto and not-Sasuke, or Sasuke and not-Naruto was silly. On the ride, they'd made plans to go to Tokyo Disneyland for Halloween, and Naruto promised to make him a costume. They had that to look forward to, tomorrow. It meant he had to skip cram school, but Sasuke was okay with that for now. His father never actually checked to see if he was _going_ to cram school, but assumed (rightfully) that he was. After the parade, Naruto had said, they'd go to Haight Ashbury. Naruto'd have him back at a decent hour, but they'd probably still have to sneak Sasuke in through the back door. It was alright, though. They'd be alright.

Naruto stepped off the bus first, the crowds of students and parents not allotting much room, but he still helped Sasuke off, squeezing his hand. Teachers were talking to parents, assuring them that everything and everyone had returned safely, and Sasuke sighed, looking around for his cousin. He didn't see him, so they walked around the bus in a circle, giving up when they reached their original point and stopping to stand where they'd started. It was bittersweet, but they were both still happy. Still in love. And that made it okay. Naruto turned into him briefly, pressing their foreheads together before planting a slow, chaste kiss on his lips. Sasuke ran a hand over one of Naruto's scarred cheeks, returning it briefly before pulling away.

And then his stomach dropped.

Staring at them, his eyes hard and the lines in his face deeper than they had ever been, was Uchiha Fugaku.

xxx

HELLO READERS. I apologize for this taking over a month. I _swear_ I tried to get this out quicker, but my usual beta basically decided she wasn't going to beta this chapter when I sent it to her, and for some reason decided I was going to be the last to know. So I have a new beta and she is absolutely amazing and without her, you would not have this. So thank you so much, Bran-beta! In return for your wait, pornography. And just so it is abundantly clear, all characters portrayed having intercourse in this fic are of the age of consent.

In other news, ~**THE PLOT THICKENS**~. And by thickens, I basically mean develops. I will have my next update for you in exactly two weeks. I can promise this for sure because I have already written the next chapter. Thank you for reading and please review!


	18. Embryo

_**Brain Damage**  
Chapter Seventeen_

_"When one has not had a good father, one must create one." Friedrich Nietzsche_

The waiting room of Chiyoda General Hospital was rather sparse when Fugaku arrived. That was for the best, really, there was no reason for a scene. A young man with dyed _blonde_ hair, how disgusting, was pacing back and forth, looking nervous but certainly not sick. A child was chewing on a candy bar, looking a bit bored as her mother fiddled with what looked like a broken wrist. An elderly couple were nearly asleep in a corner. Although he felt foolish for bringing Sasuke here, to such a _common_ hospital, the doctor who usually tended the residents of the upscale Ichibanchou neighborhood had refused to see them. This had irritated Fugaku greatly, but the fool of a man didn't budge, and so he'd been forced to take Sasuke to this… place. To an emergency room full of people who could easily be carrying all manner of infectious disease, and could be polluting them at that very moment. It couldn't be helped, though. Perhaps it would do Sasuke good to be continually reminded that _what he had done was __**wrong**_.

The automatic doors had opened for him, letting the morning air into the sterile building with him, and he alerted a nurse that he would need her to bring a wheelchair to his car. He spoke with a very eerie calm, and the woman, who was young and nervous, suspected he might be in shock. He certainly wasn't a paramedic, and only _they_ were ever that calm when bringing someone into an emergency room. She complied and quickly darted outside, unfolding a wheelchair, pushing it up to Fugaku's Lexus and peering inside. In the backseat was a young man, couldn't be much older than her own baby brother, and he looked _awful_. His face was swollen and blue with bruises, both of his eyes closed in what was either unconsciousness or perhaps the trauma was so great that they'd simply swollen shut. One of his legs was twisted in a direction it was _not_ supposed to go, and there was a decent amount of blood down the front of his shirt. She didn't say a word as she scooped his dead weight into the wheel chair, glaring a little when the man offered absolutely _no_ help in doing so.

When the patient was settled into the chair, she found a smear of browning blood running down her white uniform and she grimaced a little – oh, _why_ had she taken this job, knowing how dearly she hated blood – but her attention was diverted when the man opened the front door of the car and ducked inside.

"Sir!"

He looked at her, glaring in a way that made her blood go cold, but she held her ground. "Sir, you can't leave! You have to fill out some paperwork!"

"Fill it out for me. I'll fax you my insurance card."

She looked stunned. "No, sir. You… you _have_ to come inside. You brought him to us; you are legally responsible for him."

Fugaku sighed, checking his watch before nodding. "I'll park my car and be right in."

And before she could object, he was off. He could have left right then, of course, but that would have been dishonorable, so instead he found an empty spot in the parking lot and headed inside. The nurse he'd been speaking to was now behind the reception desk, and Sasuke was gone entirely. Good, he supposed. The boy was quite unsightly in his current state, needed a decent cleaning up, but then they'd be able to go home and everything would be alright in time.

He crossed over to the nurse and she handed him a clipboard full of paperwork to fill out. It really was a shame their usual doctor wouldn't see him, he thought bitterly. He never asked any of these stupid questions. In fact, he didn't ask questions at all. He'd take whoever was sick or injured, patch them up, prescribe something, and send them on their way. But this was simply inconvenient – questions about medical history, allergies to medication… it would take ages. He had things to do, but he supposed that, for Sasuke, he could take the day off.

He filled out the forms, as quickly and deliberately as he could, and returned them to the desk, eyes narrow.

"Are we done, then?"

She shook her head. "No, I still have a few questions for you." She stood up and opened the door to the office, where a couple of other people – nurses and future patients – were quietly talking to each other. She picked up a second clipboard and flipped through the first ten or fifteen pages without writing anything, until she hit the page she was apparently looking for. "The boy you admitted – ah, your son. Sasuke. He is unconscious and has sustained serious physical injuries. What caused them?"

Fugaku shook his head, sighing. "A car crash, unfortunately. He's been learning how to drive, and took his brother's car out for a practice session this morning, without me. Scared me to death when he called me to come get him."

Her eyes narrowed. "He called you. Alright." She made a few notes in her clipboard. "Do you know anything about the other driver?"

"I don't. He couldn't speak once I arrived, so I took him straight here."

"So the car's still there?"

"I think so. I'm going to have my eldest retrieve it later."

The nurse blinked. "But shouldn't you leave that to the police, or… something."

"The other vehicle involved had already left, but I'm more than happy to make a police report. I don't really see why, though. I'm only concerned with my son's safety and health, for now." He paused briefly. "He _will_ be okay, won't he?"

She seemed to relax at that, although he couldn't tell what her tension had really been there for. "I think so, mister…" she glanced at the clipboard again "Mister Uchiha." She smiled kindly. "He's being examined right now by some of our best medical personnel, but he could be in for a while. Would you like to take a seat in the waiting room?"

His expression hardened a little. "I can't, actually. I'll be back as soon as possible, but I must alert my wife immediately." At the nurse's bewildered expression, he added "this isn't something I could tell her over the phone. She's a bit frail. I will be back as soon as I can. Please telephone me if there are any updates in his condition or diagnosis."

"…Yes. Yes, sir, of course. Thank you."

He sighed and turned around, looking at the fastened doors that led into the rest of the hospital. It had been a necessary thing to do, of course. He knew that, and one day, Sasuke would know that. It really did break Fugaku's heart to do this. He took absolutely _no_ pleasure in causing harm to anyone in his family, especially his secondborn. Sasuke really was a treasure. Not the model son that Itachi was, but very special in his own way. But he was following Itachi's path, it seemed. He'd have to have a talk with Itachi about that. The Uchiha family did not keep secrets, not so long as they were living under his roof. And he was going to do whatever he could to protect them. They were family, after all. And that's what the head of house did.

xxx

The housemaid was on her hands and knees when Fugaku returned to his home, working on getting the unsightly bloodstains out of the carpet. The house needn't look awful when his wife came home from work, of course, so he'd set Miss Choi to work immediately. As usual, she didn't ask questions, and was assaulting the carpet with an odd concoction of ammonia and laundry detergent. Blood was impossible to remove once the stain set, and he'd had to replace the carpets in an entire hall once before because of it. No point in doing that again. He made his way upstairs, not to the floor he and his wife occupied but up to the third, where Sasuke resided. Untouched for several days except by the housekeepers, it seemed devoid of its usual life, and he frowned deeply at that. It wasn't right. Itachi's floor had a very _typical_ air of lifelessness, but not Sasuke's.

He walked at a rather leisurely pace down the hallway, opening the door to his youngest son's bedroom and taking a look inside. It was, as usual, immaculately clean and orderly, courtesy more of their housekeeper than Sasuke himself. If Fugaku knew better, he would realize how this room genuinely did not look like it belonged to a teenager. Not because of how clean it was, but for little details. The fact that instead of posters on his walls, he had high quality photography and art. No corkboards full of photos of his friends, concert ticket stubs, and happy memories – no, only the sort of décor Fugaku would approve of. No leaning tower of rock CDs. No game controllers splayed out over the floor. No food.

But despite how inconspicuous the place looked, Fugaku knew what he was searching for. It would be in a shoebox, or maybe a plastic tub about that size, and it'd be buried somewhere where Sasuke expected him not to look. It saddened him that he had to resort to this – breaking his son's trust like this, but the child was out of control. He was making all of the wrong choices, and he simply didn't have the natural talent to get away with it. Itachi had the natural talent. It was how he could get a degree in Philosophy, of all things (damn that Shisui, he was a rotten influence) and was still highly successful. Itachi was brilliant, but he was cold. No, it was worse than that – there was cold, and then there was _Itachi_. Fugaku had often lain in bed at night, wondering where he'd gone wrong with him. The signs had already begun to show themselves before Sasuke was even born, and by then, Fugaku had made up his mind. It was a lack of discipline. He and Mikoto had doted on him too much, told him too often that he was perfect and a genius, and he'd gotten a big head about it. A complex that remained to this day.

No, he hadn't made that mistake with Sasuke. He'd taken the same route of discipline that his own father had taken with him. At the time, Fugaku had – of course – deeply resented his father for the pain he'd had to endure. But it was all for the best in the end. Just like Sasuke's disciplining had been. The boy was _not_ cold and emotionless like his brother, but he was making a lot of mistakes lately. Fugaku couldn't help but call into question how he'd been raising his second born.

There were plenty of places it could be hidden, so he started with Sasuke's chest of drawers, perhaps buried somewhere underneath a pile of socks. No, not there. Then, another obvious place, under his bed. Not there either. Sasuke's bed was too low to the ground for anything to fit there, really. Nothing under the mattresses either. Miss Choi would straighten up the mess he was making after she was done with the stains, he supposed. The closet took a little more time, since it was a walk-in, and he checked some places several times over just to make sure. But no, it wasn't in here. Fugaku seriously doubted it would be in the bathroom, but opting for the idea that his son might surprise him, he took a brief look around there as well. And once again, nothing. In his search, he'd found quite a few things Sasuke probably hadn't wanted him to see (such as a collection of photos under his mattress that he assumed his son masturbated to. Each glossy print of blonde haired, blue eyed models was now in the garbage chute) - but none were what he was specifically looking for.

There weren't really any other places in the bedroom to hide it. And for a few moments, this puzzled Fugaku. Perhaps he'd given Sasuke too little credit, but something felt wrong. He knew Sasuke had to have one. He sighed, taking his leave and shutting the door quietly behind him. The hallway's decorations were far more imaginative than the artwork his son had chosen to put up – far classier too. There were a couple of unused guest bedrooms on the floor, back when there had been a need for them. Mikoto used to have wonderful parties, every New Years, and it was a custom to stay the night in their manor. But those days were in the past, and it had been a long time since anyone had slept in them.

If anyone had known what was going on, this would have been the pinnacle. This would have been the moment when Sasuke, as damaged as he was, was spared. It would have been Fugaku turning around, walking back down the stairs, and leaving the path of wreckage behind him, but destroying no further. And that _almost_ happened. It was _painfully_ close to happening. But instead, he had stopped, realization dawning on his features as he remembered the remodeling. Of _course_, the remodeling! Sasuke had picked up a rather useless hobby in photography, and had asked for some birthday or another to have his own darkroom. The smallest, least slightly bedroom on the floor had, in turn, been stripped of all the things that made it a bedroom and remodeled for an ideal darkroom. And as a general rule, only Sasuke was allowed inside. Not even the housekeeper ventured in, for fear of accidentally destroying the child's work. _That_ was where it would be. Fugaku could have kicked himself for wasting all that time – time is money, after all.

He walked briskly down the hallway to Sasuke's darkroom and opened the door, flicking on the lightswitch. It wasn't as if he didn't _care_ about ruining Sasuke's photographs, but the boy had been gone for days; it wasn't likely he had any sensitive film just lying around in here. And if he did, Fugaku would replace it. The photos were a necessary loss, at this point.

Unlike Sasuke's bedroom, there weren't a lot of places it hide it, and Fugaku located it almost immediately. It wasn't a shoebox, much to his surprise; it was actually a very nice box. Decorative and expensive. He expected Sasuke had found it somewhere in the house and taken it, and no one had noticed the change. They had so many things, and Fugaku and Mikoto spent so _little_ time at home these days, he wouldn't be surprised. Not wanting to stay in the room much longer, he took the box with him and turned off the lights on his way out, hoping he hadn't ruined too many photographs. His son was talented. It was a useless hobby, but Sasuke was good at it.

He took the stairs up to his office, shutting the door behind him as he entered in a very authoritative way. No one would interrupt him if the door was shut, and he expected that this would come as an uncomfortable shock to him. Not unlike the way he'd felt when he saw that _boy_ kissing his son. He sat behind his desk, staring at the intricate designs that covered the box before pulling the lid off, eyes narrow.

Inside was a rather large collection of items. There was a thick stack of developed photographs, bound together with a piece of rubber band, and the photograph on top (a shot of that foreigner kissing his son's cheek) gave him an idea of what the rest of them were like. Scraps of trash – receipts, movie ticket stubs, and notes written in such poor Japanese Fugaku could hardly read them - littered the box to every corner. Underneath the stack of photos was a very tightly bound wad of envelopes, each with their type written address on the front, and Sasuke's name at the top. There was no return address. There were a couple of little trinkets, too, including a set of cheap matches with the letter HAIGHT ASHBURY written on them, although Fugaku hadn't the slightest idea what that meant. All of these interested him, certainly, but what interested him the very most was a black, leather-bound book laying on top of everything else.

Sasuke had a diary.

Well, that would certainly make quick work of finding out the truth. He hated that he had to invade Sasuke's privacy like this, but if the contents of this box were any indication, his son had been lying to him for a very long time. Some of the postal stamps on the letters dated back _years_, and all were international from Korea. It didn't take a genius to figure out who Sasuke had been writing to. He sighed, trying to quell the anger that filled him. So many lies. Why his son felt so compelled to lie to him, he had no idea, but it made him absolutely miserable to know that there was nothing sacred in this house anymore. He opened the book and flipped through it, noticing that it was a relatively recent purchase because the entries only dated back to sometime in April. And there weren't a lot of them that were particularly telling, either. Sasuke seemed to question things – especially philosophical concepts – far more than he did anything else. Which was all fine and good, but it wasn't what he was looking for. He was looking for an explanation to all of… _this_.

He flipped to the last entry, looking it over.

_Things feel different now. I don't long for any justification of myself, and I don't see faults in things anymore. Everything just seems… clear. Almost clean. For the first time in ages. Maybe I'm seeing the world through rose tinted glasses again, but it's nice. I don't think I'm going to bother writing in this anymore. If there is an entry after this, it's because I'm unhappy again. Until then, I'm taking the advice of someone I care about. I'm going to live my life while it's happening. And if I have to suffer for it, that's okay. Happiness is the best revenge._

xxx

Uzumaki Naruto was officially a wreck. He'd sent Sasuke something like fifty text messages, and called him nearly twenty times, hoping for _any_ response. None came. At first, he hadn't really been that worried. If Sasuke's father was really pissed off, he might have taken away Sasuke's phone. So Naruto sent him a couple of emails. Again, no response. _Okay_, he'd thought. Maybe Fugaku took away his computer too. Maybe he'd taken away everything, and Sasuke was just sitting alone in his room, doing homework because he was so thoroughly grounded that there was nothing worth doing. But no. That wasn't it. Something was seriously wrong. Sasuke knew how much this would freak Naruto out, and he knew that his boyfriend would feel a certain compulsion to let him know the situation. And Sasuke was _crafty_. He'd find a way. And the fact that he _hadn't_ found a way weighed like death itself on Naruto's shoulders.

He was so. Worried.

Unfortunately, his own life was supposed to be going on. After he'd dropped his suitcase off at home, he'd immediately caught a bus to the Haight Ashbury to start helping out with the Halloween festivities. He'd been given the task of decorating – a task he would have _normally_ been delighted to do, and vocal about said delight. The lack of exuberance was seriously worrying Minato and Kushina. They'd expected Naruto to come back from the trip in almost annoyingly high spirits, with plenty of pictures and souvenirs and lots of kisses and hugs because they were so tight-knit. And Naruto just wasn't suited to be parted from them. Instead, their son had entered the store with his eyes down, and had taken to his task with all the enthusiasm as if he'd been told he had to wash a week's worth of dishes. Kushina, who was re-beading her jeans, kept glancing at her husband, a silent debate waging between them on who would ask first. Unsurprisingly, Minato lost.

He swept out from the kitchens, where he'd been decorating Halloween themed sweets, his apron smeared with frosting and a streak of orange cream on one of his cheeks. "Hey, kiddo."

They'd been in Japan for a while now, but they always spoke in English to one another. Naruto looked up from the glow in the dark spiderwebs he'd been pinning up, eyes almost comically big and morose if it weren't for the fact that there was something seriously wrong with him. "Hey."

"You know we're here for you, don't you?"

Kushina was nodding fervently behind him. "Yeah, dearheart. We love you, and we've got your back."

Naruto looked from one to the other, a bit confused. "… well, yeah." He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world, and his parents blinked, obviously not having expected that reaction. They'd spent enough time with their teenage son to know that he was _very_ emotional. Not depressive, really. Just emotional. When he was happy, it was an ecstatic happiness that no one could take away from him. But when he was sad, the sky really _was_ falling and the world really _was_ about to end.

Kushina couldn't seem to contain it anymore. The tension was too thick, and she wasn't known to be the most patient of people. "Did something happen with you and Sasuke?"

Naruto paused, meeting his parents penetrating, concerned gaze before shrugging. "…kinda. I mean. It's not like we directly got in a fight. But." He wasn't sure if this constituted breaking Sasuke's trust, but he couldn't help it anymore. The nervous pain in his stomach and the tears of just _not knowing_ were too hard to fight back anymore. He didn't know when it got this bad, but he was literally worried _sick_. "It's like. Sasuke's family is rich. Did you guys know that? I mean, Uchiha is apparently a huge company out here, and I didn't really understand why, because it's not like you ever see Uchiha branded anything. But they're the company that owns all the sub companies and names that everyone _does_ know. Y'know? So they're really. Really rich. And they've got this image they have to protect because of it. And Sasuke's got this scary-as-shit brother named Itachi, who's gonna be the next head of the company out from their crazy father."

His parents didn't interrupt to ask where he was going with this, but both sat down in bean bags, knowing this wasn't going to be a short story. "So Sasuke's always been really concerned about his image. I can't just go to his house. Did you know that? Like, his dad hates me. And it's _only_ his dad too. Even though Itachi's scary, he actually has my back. He caught me and Sasuke making out once and he was all _don't you dare hurt my brother and don't you dare let my father find out_, and it was really cool. Because I thought he was going to out us. And when Sasuke described his dad as not approving of homosexuality or me or _whatever_, I thought- I _thought_ it was the normal kind of disapproval. The kind that could be changed. Then I realized it wasn't. And so I thought it was the _other_ normal kind of disapproval. The kind that can't be changed, and if the douche found out we were together-together, he might disown Sasuke. So when Sasuke was all 'let's keep this shit on the DL', I was like 'no problem'. But okay."

The blonde took a moment to catch his breath. "Friggen Sasuke seems like. _Legitimately_ scared of his dad. Like, scared-scared. And I thought it was the image thing. That maybe his dad was like Malfoy's dad in the Harry Potter books. All COME DRACO, WE ARE RICH AND HAVE SIDED WITH THE DARK LORD. OUR BLONDE HAIR IS QUITE ILLUSTRIOUS. But it seemed worse than that. And so. This friggen _field trip_ finally rolls around. And I'm all FUCK YEAH, NO REASON TO HIDE _ANYTHING_. And, bless his soul, Sasuke seemed to be on the same page. So the trip itself was _fine_ until we went to the hot springs. And he's fucking. God, Mom. I can't even."

He was crying now. He couldn't help it. Kushina put a comforting hand on his back, and Naruto took a moment to steady his voice out, wiping his eyes. "He had bruises. Like, _bad_ bruises. And I didn't bring it up right then because we were around a lot of other people and I knew he'd hate me for it if I made a scene. So I waited until we got back to the room. But he got high – which, by the way, was fucking hilarious – and he was all 'Oh, don't mind the bruises, I have aenemia and I trip a lot in track' which I didn't buy but he kept grinding on me and I couldn't stay focused. OH, AND. AND. He admitted to doing painkillers. Like, a _lot_." His parents' eyes widened at this. "YEAH. I KNOW, RIGHT. And I was just too happy during the weekend to put emphasis on the problems. When it was so obvious. And so the end of the trip comes around and we take the bus back. And Sasuke's dad is there. But he'd said it was going to be his ridiculously gay cousin, and so I was all GONNA GIVE YOU A GOODBYE KISS like an _idiot_. But his dad was there and he saw. And just. I think Sasuke's dad is beating him. And I think that this might be the line. I've tried calling him _so many times_, and emailing, and texting, and he's just not responding."

He wiped his eyes again, the brilliant blue now very bloodshot. "And.. ugh, I didn't even mention this. _Ages_ ago. When Sasuke was freaking out about getting caught more than anything. He said something like 'Don't get me caught, my dad will _kill me_'. And he didn't say it we do in English. All, oh, my dad's gonna kill me for not doing the dishes. He used, god, what was it. I don't know exactly. But it was way too serious, in Japanese, for him to be joking. And the look on his face? God. I don't even know. I think I seriously screwed up."

Kushina and Minato stared at their son for a moment before looking at one another.

"What can we do, Naruto?"

xxx

Itachi had known something was off that morning. He was grateful for those instincts, passed down to him from father to son, along with the shrewd, calculating cruelty he was so known for. Few people saw anything past that. His cousin – and lover, Shisui, was one of them. But Shisui had had something of an awful morning. A telephone call had awoken both of them out of their peaceful sleep to tell Shisui there was a family emergency in Korea. Normally, a 'family emergency' would involve the rest of Itachi's family too, since they were first cousins, but it concerned Shisui's father's side. A rare occurrence indeed, considering the man had walked out on his aunt and cousin only a year or so into their marriage. As Itachi watched him disappear through the door, he'd calmly wondered if Shisui's father had finally drunk himself to death, or maybe done something honorable like hung himself. After all, Itachi hadn't known what it felt like _then_ – what it felt like to truly hate one's kin, especially one so close. That was hours ago. Shisui had left Sasuke a text to inform him Fugaku would be picking him up, and Itachi had gone off to work, ready to barrel through a long shift before perhaps joining Shisui in Seoul.

That had been _then_. If he were the emotional sort, he might long for _then_, because _then_ was fairly innocent. Then, he'd barely been thinking about Sasuke. It had registered, of course, that his brother would be returning to the manor that day. But it wasn't as if he and Sasuke ever spent a lot of time together. He loved his brother deeply, more intensely than he loved _anyone_ else, but there just wasn't time. _Then_, he wouldn't have felt any guilt in telling himself that. Because there wasn't time. Sasuke never allotted himself more than fifteen minutes a day of waking free time while in the Uchiha mansion. Between athletics and academics, the boy was working himself to death, desperately trying to compare to Itachi in _something_. Itachi remembered the day he saw his brother give up on beating him at everything. The light that had flickered out of Sasuke's eyes was akin to watching an animal get run over on a highway.

Quick. Painless. Dead.

That was then, he reasoned. _Now_ began at approximately 11:30. Itachi had actually received the call a little earlier than that, but he'd been working, and only bothered to return it once he was safely on his lunchbreak. The number wasn't one he recognized, _and_ it had gone to his personal phone, not his work phone. He'd suspected it was a telemarketer, or maybe someone calling about a bill he'd forgotten to pay. Uchiha Itachi had, of course, _never_ forgotten to pay a bill, but anything was possible. Instead, he was patched through to Emergency at Chiyoda General Hospital. The woman on the other end had calmly explained that a man named Fugaku had checked in his son, Sasuke, for injuries sustained during a car crash. Fugaku had then left, saying he was going to get his wife, and that had been well over an hour and a half ago. And try as she had to get in touch with Fugaku, he had not answered his phone.

She then went on to explain that Sasuke actually had an established medical file there, although sparse, and that his emergency contact was his older brother Itachi. And would he please come to the hospital, as his brother – legally a minor – had been in the emergency care unit unsupervised and unconscious for two hours now.

That would be about when _now_ began.

Now had continued through Itachi's drive back to the Chiyoda ward of Tokyo, knuckles white and clenched onto the steering wheel. It had continued through him parking, shaking a little with his anger, andnd it had continued as he walked through the doors of Chiyoda General, his demeanor so much more _threatening_ than Fugaku's had been that the nurse who called him thought twice about letting him in. _Doubt means don't_, she'd told herself sternly, _but the boy has no one right now. His father could be a drunkard, or could have forgotten about him entirely_. That thought was too sad for her to bear, and she buzzed the doors open, joining Itachi's side and speaking rapidly.

"He was lucky, considering it was a car crash. He doesn't have any severe head trauma, despite the bruises to his-"

"May I see the charts?" Itachi's voice was so steady, and so frightening.

"Are you medically trained? You won't really be able to interpret them if you aren't…"

"I am a doctor." Not a lie, really. He had a doctorate in Philosophy. "I'd like to see the charts, please."

The woman nodded and led him to the room where they'd been keeping Sasuke. Since it was the middle of the day and there was no inclement weather, there was actually some free space in the ER, enough for the boy to get his own room instead of a bed stowed away in the hall as he was pushed from Point A to Point B. "Alright. Here are the charts, and he's in there. Unconscious, obviously. His Primary is around here somewhere, and he's being monitored by a couple of nurses. I'm just on the reception desk tonight, so I'll just… go." Another Uchiha trait: the ability to make anyone feel smaller than the most insignificant bug under his gaze. He took the clipboard and opened the door, fully taken in his brother's appearance.

He looked terrible. His face was bruised a myriad of colors, ranging from black to a rather sickly greenish brown, and both of his eyes were swollen three times their usual size. His wrist was in a small splint, resting limply against the mattress, and one of his fingers was wrapped in a tiny brace for it. Obviously broken. His gaze raked down him, to the massive cast on his left leg, before back up again, to the bruising all over his exposed chest. Itachi couldn't stare at him for very long without feeling a wave of incredible nausea, so he crossed the room to take a seat next to him, underneath the light. The chart was hardly difficult to interpret, he thought bitterly. It detailed his father's account of what happened in a drawly scribble, obviously quick notes taken by the admittance nurse. It detailed the extent of his injuries – leg, broken in two places. Two broken fingers. Severe bruising on the face and arms. Sprained wrist. Sprained left ankle. Minor head trauma resulting in loss of consciousness.

There was something _very_ missing from this report, though, if Sasuke had been in a car crash.

He sighed, looking over at his mutilated brother, regret sending a fresh wave of nausea through him that was difficult to manage.

_Sasuke…_

xxx

Consciousness felt strange.

In _unconsciousness_, there's nothing. No dreaming. No awareness. You're out like a light, and then you're on like… well. Maybe more of a dimmerswitch. But when Sasuke came back into consciousness, he didn't _feel_ aware. He only noticed that he was. The painkillers he'd been administered intravenously gave him the dull, calming sensation of being drunk. Everything felt warm and a little heavy, not unlike sleep. What was _alarming _was that he couldn't see. It didn't hurt to try and open his eyes, he was only aware that he couldn't do it. The heart monitor attached to his temple began to beep at a more rapid pace as he began to panic. _I can't see_. He clenched and unclenched one of his hands. _Am I blind?_ He doubted it. He could see the back of his eyelids. Blind people couldn't see anything. "…can't see." He spoke in less than a whisper the first time he tried, clearing his throat before trying again. "Somebody. I can't see."

Itachi was back at his side again, his expression ice cold, reaching out to lay a hand on his brother's forehead in a way he hadn't done in _years_. It was comforting, he supposed, since the heart monitor seemed to slow down slightly. "Your eyes are swollen."

"Swollen… shut?" That was a stupid question. Sasuke would have kicked himself if he weren't so disoriented. But Itachi didn't give that one an answer.

"How do you feel?"

The younger of the two paused for a moment to consider this. "Drunk. And… sore. Heavy. Tired. A lot of things."

"That's to be expected."

For some reason, it only occured to Sasuke _then_ that that voice belonged to his brother. It was something he'd known, but it hadn't properly digested. But his brother was here. And here, it occurred to him, was not where he usually was after something like this happened. Typically, the family doctor would come to their house, patch him up as he saw fit, prescribe some painkillers, and leave Sasuke in his room. In fact, almost everything related to his treatments were done in his room, except stitches, which were done in a guest room because he didn't want blood on his bedspread or carpet. But this was not his room. This room smelled clean. Not that his own room didn't smell clean, but this was a very different kind of clean. The air smelled incredibly sterile. And the bed he was in, it certainly wasn't his own. He could feel something attached to his left arm, and he realized it must be an IV. Probably where he was getting the painkillers that numbed out whatever damage his father had done. "This is a hospital. Where's the usual doctor?" He'd never been to a real hospital before, that he could remember. Maybe his parents had taken him when he was young for vaccinations, but he could never remember being in one before now.

Itachi didn't say anything for several moments, and Sasuke tensed. "Are you still there?"

His brother's voice was cold. Low. "Is there a usual doctor?"

That question surprised him. "…yes. Doctor Yakushi. Father always called him for us."

Itachi looked him over, eyes narrow. Even in his sickly childhood, he'd never seen any such man. And he'd had a _very_ sickly childhood. Instead, he'd been taken to a doctor's office. Surely Fugaku hadn't been asking for _house calls_. They were terribly expensive and it wasn't a sterile environment. His lips thinned to a barely visible line, although completely invisible to his brother. "How did you get hurt?"

Sasuke's heart skipped a beat. And not in any romantic way, either. It was a lurch in his chest because he realized he had _no idea_ what to say. Fugaku was well within his rights as the head of household to discipline his children. He knew that. His father reminded him so. But Fugaku also gave him stories. He gave him one lie to tell when people asked how he got hurt, because some people didn't believe in disciplining their children. _Some_ people believed it was perfectly okay to just let their children run amok, and that's how criminals are made. He'd been told this from a young age. But he didn't have a story. "Accident." It was all he could come up with, and he hoped Itachi would take it. Or give him something to work off of. "What's the damage? I think they have me drugged, because I'm not feeling much pain."

Itachi didn't take the bait or the change of subject. He spoke with an eerie calm that made Sasuke _deeply_ uncomfortable. "What sort of accident, Sasuke?"

The heart monitor's beeping picked up speed dramatically as panic flooded him. "I.. I don't want to talk about it."

"I understand." The breath Sasuke didn't know he'd been holding finally escaped him in a deep exhale. "You've been through… a considerable trauma."

"Is my leg broken? I remember that hurting."

"Two places." His brother's voice was clipped. Frightening.

"What else? A few fingers, obviously." The bulky braces on each broken one would make writing impossible. "And… my wrist?"

"Sprained." A pause. "As I said. The damage is considerable."

_He knows_. "When can I go home?" _I need to speak with Father_.

"That is an excellent question."

"One I would like an _answer_ to."

He was so uncomfortable. His brother's gaze was penetrating. Even if he couldn't see it, he could feel it, and it was unbearable. It felt like he was under a massive spotlight. But for a moment, that tense feeling disappeared. Beside him, Itachi was looking at the charts. "According to the MRIs taken, you received minor head trauma from your… accident. If the integrity of your memory is in jeopardy, I suggest you inform me immediately." Sasuke said nothing. "After all, memory loss is associated with severe head trauma almost exclusively. If you legitimately have zero recollection of the event that brought you here, I should say you need further testing, for the damage to your brain would be far worse than anticipated."

If he could squirm, he would. He didn't know what to say to make this line of questioning stop, and he didn't know the story. He was a _good_ liar. He'd been doing it for years. But if Fugaku had already told someone what had happened to him – which was likely, considering he was in the hospital – and he contradicted the story, it would be obvious one (or both) of them were lying. "I have _some_ recollection…"

"Is that so."

Sasuke nodded, trying to be ambiguous. "I remember something hitting my face. And… a lot of light."

Itachi's eyes narrowed. "That's very troubling. That sort of memory loss following a car crash is… very serious."

_Finally_. "Yes, it was bad. But I'm sure the memory will come back."

"I'm sure it will." His brother spoke evenly, and in a deadly calm. "Perhaps I can jog your memory. Can you recall where you were when the accident occurred."

"No."

"That's very troubling. Do you know what I find equally troubling?"

Sasuke said nothing.

"Of all your extensive injuries, not included among them are any damage to your neck. Disregarding the fact that it seems _fantastically_ unlikely that you were expected to drive yourself back from your...school-related outing. Your story is completely implausible, and impossible to corroborate if you did not hit your head on the steering wheel, which would have inevitable resulted in corresponding injuries that you, Sasuke. Do not have."

The intensity in Itachi's voice was frightening. The difference between water at room temperature and water _boiling_. Sasuke lay there, incredibly still, panic taking him over before he finally managed to choke out "I'm not lying."

They were silent for a while. Itachi simply watched him, trying to figure out what he was protecting, and Sasuke turned his head away, trying to isolate himself from this. He knew his brother was still in the room, of course. He could feel Itachi. He could feel his gaze. His love. His anger. They were brothers who had spent too many years pretending they weren't close. Sasuke, who had spent too many years pretending like he was entirely independent. But he wasn't. Of course he wasn't. He was seventeen. He wouldn't legally be an adult for another three years, not in Japan. In the eyes of the law, he was a child. And in the eyes of his family, he was an infant.

"Was it someone from school."

Sasuke would have blinked if he could. "What? No. No, of course not."

At least that was sincere, Itachi thought bitterly. He peered into his brother's face, searching for something. The bruising was terrible. Even if Sasuke managed to open his eyes at some point today, it would take ages for the black eyes to vanish entirely. His nose was swollen too, although it hadn't been broken. "Then who, Sasuke."

"It was an automobile accident."

"It was _not_ an automobile accident."

"Where is Father?"

"What does Father have to do with this?"

Panic threatened to seize Sasuke again, but he held it down. "Nothing. I just want to see him. Hear him."

Itachi didn't miss the way his brother's voice inflected as he tried to sound casual. Innocent. He didn't understand. What was Sasuke protecting? Sure, he wasn't around as much nowadays, but that didn't change the fact that Itachi knew Sasuke better than anyone else. He knew without a doubt that he was lying, but some innocent part of him, the fraction that wanted to have faith couldn't help but question _why_. And where was this going, if anywhere? It couldn't have anything to do with pride, or Sasuke would be more… sour about the whole ordeal. But he wasn't. He was nervous, on top of a haze of calm, but he wasn't _angry_. "Why is that?"

"Because I've been away. Because I was in a car accident. Because I thought I was going to _die_. I don't know _why_ I want to see him, but I want to see him. Why can't _you_ understand that?" (_I'd like to thank the Academy_.)

"What car were you driving?"

The question caught Sasuke completely offguard. "Er- Mine. The one Mother gave me."

"And how did it get to the school?"

"I don't know. I think someone dropped it off for me and then took the bus home." That sounded stupid just coming out of his mouth. No one in his family had the time available to do that for him. Or the care to do it. "Maybe Shisui. He was supposed to pick me up."

"I find that unlikely, seeing that he left for the airport in his own car at around four this morning."

Sasuke seized his chance. "Why did he leave?"

"He left before I arrived."

"I didn't ask when, I asked why."

Itachi bristled, snapping at him without meaning to. "The implication being that I do not know _why_, little brother." And as quickly as the anger had come, he smothered it with a practiced hand, trying to calm himself. Sasuke looked uncomfortable, even a little frightened. It was the expression he wore most of the time they ever spoke to one another. Not unlike the expression he wore when he spoke to their father.

"Call Mom for me, please."

Itachi nodded, ignoring the fact that Sasuke couldn't see it, and left the room, his phone in hand. The call was brief, and he wasn't surprised to learn Mikoto had no knowledge of Sasuke's _car accident_. He didn't bother telling her how he got hurt, as he didn't know himself, although he was relatively sure someone had attacked him. He certainly didn't do it to himself. Self-harm had been something Sasuke dabbled with in his very early teens, during the movie from Korea to Japan, but that phase was long over now, and nothing Sasuke had ever done then held a candle to how he looked now. The boy did have a certain affinity for hurting himself on accident as well, but Itachi couldn't remember ever seeing him look like this. When he was done, he returned inside, the nurse who'd been changing his brother's IV crossing him at the door as she took her leave. He imagined his brother was regretting waking up, now, but had no intention of relenting the line of questioning as he took his seat next to Sasuke again.

"What did she say?"

"She's on her way."

"Did she say how long it would take? Or if Father was coming?"

Itachi looked him over for a moment, briefly considering lying to him. There was a part of him that still pictured Sasuke at five years old, regardless of the kiss marks that covered his exposed throat. He still saw the tiny child with his round face and big eyes, knees skinned and waiting for him on the front porch for him to return from Primary School. A part of him that still wanted to bully him, just a little. Not in a _mean_ way, but a brotherly way. He assumed that part of him was just yearning for a time when nothing was this bad. When he could undo some of the wrong choices he'd made, and could prevent Sasuke from making some of the mistakes that now defined him. "Twenty minutes. And she did not mention Father."

"Okay."

Itachi leaned close to him then, his eyes almost on fire. If Sasuke could see them, he wouldn't have lasted nearly as long as he had under the pressure. "Sasuke."

"…yes?"

"Mother is not going to believe you crashed your car this morning, seeing as she is currently driving it to this hospital."

Sasuke's mouth went very dry.

"So who. _Was_ it. You can tell me now, or I can figure it out myself. But the consequences for the person you are protecting in your silence will be all the more severe every _minute_ I spend looking for them."

"So figure it out! I can't tell you who did it."

"So you admit that it wasn't a car accident?"

"I admit nothing."

Itachi crossed his arms, his eyes glinting with an almost manic anger. "Was it Uzumaki?"

Sasuke was taken aback. "No. No, he-" And he nearly said _he loves me_ right then, but that was too much. Too personal to share with his brother. Itachi wouldn't understand it. Just because Itachi was okay with it didn't mean he'd understand. As far as he knew, his brother had never had a girlfriend. What could he possibly know about love? Like _that_. He wouldn't get it. "Just no."

"Prove it to me."

"I can't prove it to you!" Sasuke sat up, despite express orders that he shouldn't move at all, and was greeted with pain that was intense enough to crush through the haze of his painkillers. He relaxed down again, teeth gritting together. "I can't prove anything, but do I really come off as some kind of battered woman? We've only been together for a couple of months. If he did this to me, I'd set you on him without question."

"You are protecting _someone_, who obviously has no such intentions in the _reverse_. There are very few psychological conditions that resemble this sort of behavior _other_ than battered person syndrome."

"It's not Naruto!"

Itachi steadied his voice, eyes narrow. "Then _who_ is it?"

Sasuke was breathing hard now, his heart monitor beeping angrily to match his pulse. But he took a moment to calm himself, the way his brother was calm. A couple of the nurses had almost peeked in to make sure that he wasn't crashing, but the look on Itachi's face, full of anger that wheeled on them, had kept everyone from entering. He was like his father, in that way. The ability to mold anyone into doing what he wanted without saying a word. "What is it." Sasuke finally breathed, "about _I can't tell you_ that you do not understand."

His older brother's voice was deadly. Calm.

"The part where you're still speaking."

Sasuke seemed to consider this for several moments, and he bit his lip. It seemed, at this point, the only part of his body not bruised. "Things would change if I told you."

"Life is change. That is the reality of things."

"Do you think the change could be good?" He hated the idea of disrespecting his family. And his family name. But what if he could live in a place where it was totally okay to have Naruto as a boyfriend – or anyone, as a boyfriend? Naruto's family was like that. Yes, they were commoners, and foreigners. But maybe Sasuke's life could be that way. Maybe his children's lives could be that way, if his own couldn't. In his father's beatings, he'd begged. _Begged_ for forgiveness. Begged for the forgiveness of his ancestors. Swore that the moment he could, he would break up with Naruto. Made promise after promise so it would stop. And promised Fugaku he'd be good. And he _wanted_ to be good. He'd wanted to be good when he moved to Japan from Korea, leaving Gaara and his life behind. Would Itachi's vengeance be enough, _really_, to change generations of thought?

"Change is inherently neutral."

No. Of course it wouldn't be.

"Then there's no point in telling you."

"Sasuke." There was no hint of fraternal love in his voice. Only an anger he was trying to stifle. "Whatever change you are trying to prevent has already begun. It began the moment you were checked into this hospital. You won't stop it now. Whether the catalyst is this very moment, or three hours, or three days, or three _years_ from now, it is already too late to prevent that time from arriving, be it immediately or eventually. That is a fact."

And he said it before he could even think to stop himself. He was positively swollen with anger, fists clenched and trying with all his might to open his eyes. It wasn't going to happen, and every attempt stung with pain, but he tried. "What _happened_ to me is something that has never and _will never_ happen to you because you can do no wrong. Do not speak to me as if you _understand_, because you don't."

Itachi just stared at him. Something was stirring in side of him, frothing rage and apprehension and suspicion and even vague understanding. He regarded his brother, his own stomach tossing angrily and his eyes so narrow. "Make me understand."

"I've said too much. But you know who it was."

The silence was deafening. And just like that, Itachi knew. The conclusion was obvious. He calculated it all in his brilliant mind, and turned it over once, twice, even three times to make sure he didn't leave anything out. No, it was agonizingly clear. He looked over at his brother, fists clenching as he tried to doubt himself. _Wanted _to doubt himself. "Say it."

Sasuke should have tried to fight him more, but he'd fought enough. He could blame it on the drugs coursing through his system, but it wasn't that. It was just that he wasn't up for it anymore. He was tired. He was done. And the change that had already been coming was now a steamroller on top of him, crushing his body to a fine powder until there was nothing but mind left. His mind. More beautiful than his father ever gave him credit for. Or anyone, for that matter, with the possible exception of Uzumaki Naruto. He gave up on trying to open his eyes and sighed, nodding.

"Dad."

It would probably be the last time he would be able to refer to him so casually.

Unlikely as snow in the summertime did Uchiha Itachi then lean down and kiss his baby brother on the forehead. His temperature was up, but the nurses would see to that, and without a word, he swept out the door. Sasuke had expected this, and did not bother to call out after him. The air felt alive with Itachi's anger, literally _buzzing_ with it. True, genuine rage. And as the young man glided down the hall, he was unrecognizable even to his mother, who was being directed to Sasuke's room. She didn't notice it was her eldest son until it was too late to call after him, the hair on the back of her neck standing up with her tension.

She entered her youngest's room, heart going cold and the heat of Itachi's anger disappearing in the wake of her terror. Fear for the life of her child.

"Sasuke, my darling. What happened to you?"

xxx

oh god the sheer amount of drama that has suddenly crashed on this fic is amazing. But this chapter has been a **long** time coming. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, and thanks so much to my beta, Corseted Camellia, who has been absolutely wonderful to work with. I hope my interpretation of Fugaku as an abusive parent was forgiveable. I didn't want to write him as some unforgiving monster - that's how a 12 year old writes, and I'm not 12 anymore. The cycle of abuse is much more complicated than "because fugaku is a bastard", and I wanted to do that justice here. I can't promise when my next chapter will be out b/c it's going to be long and I have a lot to do this month (such as but not limited to, returning to school). In the mean time, **please review**!


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